qtile and keyboard layout / xmodmap: is the layout reset/changed?

I experience this issue on two different machines (with the same distribution: ArchLabs).

The issue is that my modifier mapping (xmodmap) gets changed once Qtile has finished to startup.

I have setup Qtile as follow:

# init runs login which runs zsh
# zsh sources .zprofile, which runs startx if we are in TTY1
# startx runs ~/.xinitrc

# typical ~/.xinitrc
[ -r /etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap ] && xmodmap /etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap
[ -r ~/.Xmodmap ] && xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
[ -r ~/.Xresources ] && xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
[ -r ~/.xprofile ] && . ~/.xprofile

exec qtile

And the content of ~/.Xmodmap to map CapsLock to Hyper key:

clear Lock
keycode 66 = Hyper_L
remove mod4 = Hyper_L
add mod3 = Hyper_L

I added xmodmap >> ~/xmodmap.log everywhere, and here is the summary of what happens:

> in zprofile

> in xinitrc

> before xmodmap (initial fr layout)
lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
mod3      
mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)

> after xmodmap (ok)
lock      
mod3        Hyper_L (0x42),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce)

> in qtile startup once script (still good)
lock      
mod3        Hyper_L (0x42),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce)

> at this point, Qtile is ready and my Qtile key Hyper+Return does not work,
> I use the backup Super+Return key to launch a terminal

> output of xmodmap (mod3 cleared, and Hyper on lock??)
lock        Hyper_L (0x42)
mod3      
mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)

I tried to look at the source code, particularly at keyboard-related widgets, but couldn’t find code susceptible to run and change the keyboard layout/mappings, so I don’t know why they get changed. Any idea 🙂 ?

I’m not even sure it’s caused by Qtile, but the hints to say so are here: mapping ok while in startup_once hook, mapping changed after that and before doing anything else 😕

EDIT: based on comment from @tych0, maybe another program is problematic, like gnome-keyring-daemon or polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1. I’ll try to stop running them and see if the issue persists.

EDIT2: nope, still same result.

[vividn]

So after many additional hours of looking into this, I’ve learned that the xmodmap modifier table is reset after the first key press on the keyboard, so anything done in the qtile config will get thrown away unless you put a delay in to run xmodmap and then make sure to press a key on the keyboard before the delay expires.

I think this is because qtile doesn’t register the keyboard until a key is pressed, after which it detects it and setxkbmap is run, which resets the modifier keys. I don’t know the internals here. setxkbmap is also run whenever a new keyboard is plugged in so the hyper modifier is also lost in this case as well.

After much scouring of the internet, it seems the best solution is to define your own xkb symbols file that sets up hyper to be a modifier. That way, after plugging in new keyboards and when qtile starts it gets reset to the correct desired behavior.

For example, here is my symbols file, adapted from https://gist.github.com/nh2/ff15f412881f35ab7730

xkb_symbols "us-altgr-intl-hyper"
{
  include "us(altgr-intl)" 
  include "level3(ralt_switch)"

  key <CAPS>  { [ Hyper_L ] };
  modifier_map Mod3 { <CAPS> };
  modifier_map Mod3 { <HYPR> };
};

for those using NixOs, put this into xkb.nix:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:
let symbols_file = pkgs.writeText "symbols/us-altgr-intl-hyper" ''
xkb_symbols "us-altgr-intl-hyper"
{
  include "us(altgr-intl)"
  include "level3(ralt_switch)"

  key <CAPS>  { [ Hyper_L ] };
  modifier_map Mod3 { <CAPS> };
  modifier_map Mod3 { <HYPR> };
};
'';
in {
    services.xserver = {
      layout = "us-altgr-intl-hyper";
      extraLayouts.us-altgr-intl-hyper = {
        description = "Custom layout with hyper guaranteed to be mod3";
        languages = [ "eng" ];
        symbolsFile = symbols_file;
    };
  };
}

and then import it into configuration.nix imports = [ ./xkb.nix ]

you can then start to add your own custom keys as well.

[pawamoy]

Wow, thanks a lot for the thorough investigation, and for reporting all this here! I’ve not hacked on Qtile for a while but this will definitely be useful when I start again 😄