Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2 Xmodmap settings for Ubuntu Linux

During the upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 I managed to clobber my hard-won Xmodmap settings to make my Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2 (the USB version, with the arrow keys) work properly.

Here is the commented xmodmap file I use to modify the default key mappings, which is slightly British oriented. To use the file, run xmodmap path_to_file.

Some features:

• £ and € symbols are mapped to right-diamond-3 and right-diamond-e, respectively.
  
• Arrow keys work.
• PageUp/PageDown on Fn-Arrows work.
• Left Diamond is another Alt.
• Tilde, pipe, backslash and backtick behave themselves.

I just hope I don't ever have to work all this out again.


------------------- SNIP FILE -------------------

! This is an xmodmap input file for the Happy Hacking Keyboard, model HHKB Lite 2. It assumes that the
! keymap is already set up for a gb-105 keyboard, then applies fixes for arrow keys and British conventions
!
! This file makes the following changes:
!
! Fix the arrow keys
!
keycode 111 = Up
keycode 116 = Down
keycode 113 = Left
keycode 114 = Right
!
! Fix the Fn-Arrows to give PgUp, PgDown, Home and End
!
keycode 112 = Prior
keycode 117 = Next
keycode 110 = Home
keycode 115 = End
!
! Fix the Alt and Diamond keys
!
keycode 133 = Super_L
keycode 134 = Mode_switch
keycode 64 = Alt_L
keycode 108 = Alt_R
!
! Put the @ on shift-' as British keyboards do
!
keycode 48 = apostrophe at
!
! Put the " on shift-2 as British keyboards do
!
keycode 11 = 2 quotedbl
!
! Put the Pound symbol on right-diamond-3
!
keycode 12 = 3 numbersign sterling sterling
!
! Put the Euro symbol on right-diamond-e
!
keycode 26 = e E EuroSign
!
! Fix tilde
!
keycode 49 = grave asciitilde
!
! Fix backslash
!
keycode 51 = backslash bar
!
!
! Remove all the existing modifier key mappings
!
clear Shift
clear Lock
clear Control
clear Mod1
clear Mod2
clear Mod3
clear Mod4
clear Mod5
!
! Put the modifier key mappings back
!
add Shift = Shift_L Shift_R
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L Control_R
!
! including this line which makes both Alt keys and the left diamond key act as Alt keys
!
add Mod1 = Alt_L Alt_R Super_L
!
! makes the right diamond acts as the Mode_switch modifier (mapped to right diamond above)
!
add Mod3 = Mode_switch
add Mod5 = Scroll_Lock

------------------------- END OF FILE -----------------------

Copying package selections with debian/ubuntu

This is documented in lots of places but it seems to always take me a while to find it. Here is how to install the set of packages from one machine to another.

1. On the source machine: sudo dpkg --get-selections > output_file
2. Transfer the output file to the target machine
3. On the target machine: sudo dpkg --set-selections <>
4. On the target machine: sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

Screen Tweaks on Ubuntu Jaunty

Screen is a must-have tool for anyone that spends time at the command line. I move my .screenrc file around with me whenever I move machine, and hadn't thought about it much for a while, but when I started screen on a Ubuntu Jaunty box with no .screenrc, I noticed that the system-wide screen config in /etc/screenrc is now quite useful.

The screenshot below shows the status line from the default config.


Using two whole lines for status messages seems a bit much but I'm a little old school when it comes to preserving display space. So you get load, CPU, free memory, a clock and named screens without any effort now.

I copied the /etc/screenrc to ~/.screenrc and added a few options

bind x
bind ^x
ignorecase on


The bind options stop C-ax, which normally detaches the terminal from screen, from working. I tend to type that keystroke by accident fairly frequently. The last option ignores case during history searches.

If you use lots of gnome-terminal windows or even tabs to manage your terminal sessions you should try screen, it will speed you up a lot once the keystrokes get wired into your muscle memory.