Recently I wanted to remap my keyboard because QWERTY layout makes my hand and wrist hurt.
As I am using mainly Arch Linux, I needed a software level remap. So I found a project called KMonad. It can work on all the platform, no matter it’s X11, Wayland, MacOS or Windows.
First, create a file called layout.kbd, this will be our config file.
Then set the Vim to parse the file as lisp
:set filetype=lisp
Then copy the following lines of boilerplate code, and note to change the device file to your keyboard file.
(defcfg
;; For Linux
input (device-file "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:02:00.0-usb-0:5:1.0-event-kbd")
output (uinput-sink "My KMonad output"
;; To understand the importance of the following line, see the section on
;; Compose-key sequences at the near-bottom of this file.
"/run/current-system/sw/bin/sleep 1 && /run/current-system/sw/bin/setxkbmap -option compose:ralt")
cmp-seq ralt ;; Set the compose key to `RightAlt'
cmp-seq-delay 5 ;; 5ms delay between each compose-key sequence press
;; For Windows
;; input (low-level-hook)
;; output (send-event-sink)
;; For MacOS
;; input (iokit-name "my-keyboard-product-string")
;; output (kext)
;; Comment this if you want unhandled events not to be emitted
fallthrough true
;; Set this to false to disable any command-execution in KMonad
allow-cmd true
;; Set the implicit around to `around`
implicit-around around
)
The defsrc is where you describe how your physical keyboard looks like, it is the base layout of your keyboard.
(defsrc
esc f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 f10 f11 f12
grv 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = bspc
tab q w e r t y u i o p [ ] \
caps a s d f g h j k l ; ' ret
lsft z x c v b n m , . / rsft
lctl lmet lalt spc ralt rmet cmp rctl
)
The default layer is the base layer of your custom layout.
(deflayer default
esc f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 f10 f11 f12
$ + [ { \( & = \) } ] * ! | bspc
tab ; , . p y f g c r l / @ \
caps a o e u i d h t n s - ret
@shift ' q j k x b m w v z rsft
lctl lmet lalt spc ralt rmet cmp rctl
)
You can define other layers with custom name and use them as alias.
(deflayer shift
esc f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 f10 f11 f12
~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 % ` bspc
tab : < > P Y F G C R L ? ^ #
caps A O E U I D H T N S _ ret
lsft " Q J K X B M W V Z rsft
lctl lmet lalt spc ralt rmet cmp rctl
)
(defalias
shift (layer-toggle shift)
)
Now we need to add a systemd service to enable KMonad.
Create a systemd service
sudo nvim /etc/systemd/system/kmonad.service
Write the config as following
[Unit]
Description=kmonad
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/kmonad /home/fabric/.kmonad/real-programmers-dvorak.kbd
Restart=always
User=root
Group=root
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Now enable and start the service
sudo systemctl enable --now kmonad.service
Now you will have a working custom layout.