Re: altwin:left_meta_win - super and meta on same key - how to fix

Lionel Élie Mamane <[email protected]> writes:

> On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 12:20:39PM +0200, Lionel Élie Mamane wrote:
>> On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 12:08:13PM +0200, Lionel Élie Mamane wrote:
>> 
>> > My /etc/default/keyboard contains
>> 
>> > XKBMODEL="microsoft4000"
>> > XKBLAYOUT="us"
>> > XKBVARIANT="euro"
>> > XKBOPTIONS="altwin:left_meta_win,compose:menu"
>> > BACKSPACE="guess"
>> 
>> > Emacs has started to treat the left Microsoft Windows logo key
>> > as meta _and_ super at the same time, so that any binding in emacs
>> > that uses Meta is unusable, because emacs will say I pressed M-s-FOO
>> > when I pressed left Microsoft Windows logo key + FOO, which used to be
>> > just M-FOO.
>> 
>> 
>> "xmodmodmap" output:
>> 
>> shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
>> lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
>> control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
>> mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_L (0xcc)
>> mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
>> mod3        ISO_Level5_Shift (0xcb)
>> mod4        Meta_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Meta_L (0xcd),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
>> mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c)
>> 
>> I tried "xmodmap -e 'remove mod4 = Super_R Super_L Hyper_L'" to get
>> 
>> mod4        Meta_L (0x85),  Meta_L (0xcd)
>> 
>> + start a new emacs, but it did not change anything.
>
> But this worked:
>
> $ xmodmap -e 'remove mod4 = Meta_L'
> $ xmodmap -e 'add mod1 = Meta_L'
>
> Is this an xkb bug then? Should I file it there?
>

There is a tool called Gnome Tweaks that you might find
useful.  

   https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/gnome-tweaks

It does not provide the generality that ‘xmodmap’ does, but
it can help with many common keyboard remappings and trades
off the generality for more ease of use.

(I used to use xmodmap to adjust my keyboard
mappings.  To say the least, it is in need of a
graphical-user interface to make it usable by a wider
audience.)

-- 
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds.