Glad it's working now! :-)

I must admit I've grown fond of passwords with numbers, symbols and the letters AQWZCX etc. I know, for saying this I'll get my accounts hacked horribly...

I came to the same conclusion about using keys/numbers/symbols that are the same on both qwerty and colemak

you have to be careful with zxcv on an ISO keyboard if you're using the wide mod as they are different to vanilla qwerty, i.e. your 'z' will be a '\'

likewise for numbers > 6

thanks ghen for the tip on initramfs, I'll have to look into that..

and thanks again dreymar for your 'big-bag' - I realise now that my ability to interact with a computer is almost completely dependent on it, please don't stop doing what you do or I am royally screwed

I'm trying to get the xkb files from the startpost working when installed to a local directory, but I seem unable to get it to work despite using exactly the commands given in the start post.

[hge@quasar:dreymar_xkb] $ ./install-dreymar-xmod.sh -ni '/home/hge/myxkb'

@@@ DreymaR's Big Bag Of Tricks install script (by GadOE, 2015-01) @@@

¤ Found mod root dir './x-mod_v2-12-1_2015-01-18'
¤ Subdirectories to mod: 'xkb'
¤ Backing up: None
¤ Installing mod files in '/home/hge/myxkb/dmod-xkb'


@@@ XKBmap activation skipped @@@


@@@ install-dreymar-xmod.sh finished! @@@

[hge@quasar:dreymar_xkb] $ ./setxkb.sh -s '5n us us' -d '/home/hge/myxkb'

@@@ DreymaR's setxkbmap script (by GadOE, 2015-01) @@@

¤ Using model/layout 'pc105'/'us(cmk_ed_us)' from ShortStr
¤ Changed dir to '/home/hge/myxkb'
¤ Looking for and removing any old .xkm server files
Password: 
¤ Running setxkbmap:

Setting verbose level to 9
locale is C
Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard model
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard layout
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Trying to load rules file ./rules/evdev...
Trying to load rules file /etc/X11/xkb/rules/evdev...
Success.
Applied rules from evdev:
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:     us(cmk_ed_us)
options:    misc:extend,lv5:caps_switch_lock,grp:shifts_toggle,compose:menu
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes:   evdev+aliases(qwerty)
types:      complete
compat:     complete
symbols:    pc+us(cmk_ed_us)+inet(evdev)+group(shifts_toggle)+compose(menu)
geometry:   pc(pc105)
Error loading new keyboard description

¤ Changed dir to '/home/hge/tools/dreymar_xkb'

@@@ setxkb.sh finished! @@@

The warning sign is the error message, but it doesn't give me enough info to debug. Does anyone have a pointer on what I'm
doing wrong?

Output of the show-xkb.sh script below as that might help:

[hge@quasar:dreymar-xtools] $ ./show-xkb.sh 

••• DreymaR's Show XKB info script (by GadOE, 2014) •••


••• Output from 'xprop -root | grep "XKB"': •••

_XKB_RULES_NAMES(STRING) = "evdev", "pc105angle-lg", "gb,gb", ",colemak", ""

••• Output from 'gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard': •••

No such schema 'org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard'

••• Output from 'setxkbmap -print': •••

xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)"    };
    xkb_types     { include "complete"    };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete"    };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+gb+gb(colemak):2+inet(evdev)"    };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc104)"    };
};

••• Press any key to finish: •••

btw) This is on Slackware Current, with a Microsoft Natural 4000 keyboard.

Unfortunately that makes no differences. The keymap doesn't get loaded if I run the updated command either. Additional info:

My Xorg.0.log shows the following warning when I run setxkb.sh

[1154467.442] (EE) Error loading keymap /var/lib/xkb/server-0.xkm

That directory is empty except for a readme file and as far as I can see the problem must originate the setxkbmap call in the script. All options it gets called with look correct.

edit)
It might be relevant. The above was using the version as downloaded from github; now I look closer the one on github appears outdated compared to the zip-file linked in the first topic as the x-mod directories have a different date. However installing the zip-file from this topic start fails for me on:

[hge@quasar:dreymar_x-mod] $ ./install-dreymar-xmod.sh -ni '/home/hge/myxkb'

@@@ DreymaR's Big Bag Of Tricks install script (by GadOE, 2015-01) @@@

¤ Found mod root dir './x-mod_v2-12-1_2015-11-22'
¤ Subdirectories to mod: 'console xkb'
¤ Backing up: None
WARNING: Root or sudo access may be needed!
¤ Installing mod files in '/home/hge/myxkb/dmod-console'

@@@ install-dreymar-xmod.sh - ERROR: Local files copy error! @@@

If I look at the script it tries to copy the content of /usr/share/X11/console. This fails because there is no console directory in any of my X11 folders. Removing the console from the install directory makes the install complete, but still no luck in actually having it work. The Xorg.0.log shows when I run setxkb.sh:

[1160807.896] (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-0)
[1160807.896] (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap

Yup, my conclusion has to be that the setxkbmap command is wonky regarding local folders. I'm pretty sure that worked for me earlier, but...

An install with the -xo parameters (backup and replace the system X11/xkb folder) worked for me just now. Guess you have to use that, then.

Yes, and I've fixed it in my download files just now (not on GitHub, unfortunately). Thanks for the tip!

In these files, the .sh scripts should have run rights.

Right Alt works – as Colemak[eD] should! That is, it's an AltGr key for producing fancy glyphs. This is as intended.

In your US layout there is no AltGr so the RAlt works just as another Alt. If you want that back, there are some Alt key options you could select I think but if not you'll have to uncomment a "lvl3" switch line in the layout itself (or its includes).

It depends on which layout you use, but it can also be overridden by a counter command later on (so you could get your desired behavior using, e.g., setxkbmap, no matter what the layout had set before).

xkb_symbols "cmk_ed" {
    include "colemak(cmk_ed_letters)"
    include "colemak(cmk_ed_symbols)"
    include "level3(ralt_switch)"
    name[Group1]= "English/Intl (Colemak, edition DreymaR)";
};

Example from symbols/colemak; the interesting line is level3(ralt_switch), where you'd like something else than ralt_switch. I think maybe you want '  lv3(ralt_alt)', but not quite sure. What the normal US layout does is simply to not have any level3() lines, so if you comment out the one(s) that cause your unwanted behavior that'll work. But if you're unlucky, the ralt_switch may be included several places in your definition chain.

Hi, Moesasji!

The Caps key behavior is not defined in the symbols/extend file, but in symbols/lv5. There are many options for selecting level5–8 which I use for mapping the Extend layers. The one I use myself (and which is sort of a default for Extend) is caps_switch_lock:

// CapsLock chooses 5th level, latches (temp lock) when pressed with another 5th-level-chooser
partial modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "caps_switch_lock_cancel" {
  include "level5(lock)"
  key <CAPS> {
    type[Group1] = "EIGHT_LEVEL_LEVEL_FIVE_LOCK",
    symbols[Group1] = [ ISO_Level5_Shift, ISO_Level5_Shift, ISO_Level5_Shift, ISO_Level5_Shift,
                        ISO_Level5_Lock, ISO_Level5_Lock, ISO_Level5_Lock, ISO_Level5_Lock ]
  };
};

What this is supposed to do, is act like a switch when pressed, like a Shift key. When pressed together with another lv5 chooser, it'll lock the level5 like a CapsLock. But that means you have to have another lv5 chooser defined which most people don't bother with.

If it acts like a lock upon tapping, that's a bug in Slackware. You're free to edit the symbols/lv5 file to produce whatever you desire of course. ;-)

Several users want on-release mappings but I don't think xkb supports that out of the box. I personally don't trust such mappings for common keys at least, as they lead to misfires. But for something like you describe it might work well enough. What I'd do would be to not care about the last four levels (as they require another lv5 chooser) but map lv3–4 of the CapsLock key to 'Escape' instead of 'ISO_Level5_Shift'. Then, you'll get Esc from the Caps+AltGr combo.

However, I find it easier to just use the Extend layer as-is. I respect the Esc a lot, as my Extend Extreme topic hopefully shows. Therefore, both Caps+Q (for quick one-handed action) and Caps+[ are Esc in my Extend setup. In practice, Caps+Q works perfectly for me at least. I find it nearly as easy as tapping Caps, and far more robust.

Stevep99 has some work on modifiers on his github pages. One suggestion is to make the LAlt key your Extend modifier and tweak things around a little from there. That'd mean a more fanciful editing of the lv5 and other files, of course. I'm not all that interested in doing it until I see testimonies that it really really works in practice.

I like the idea of putting shift on LALt; I'll probably try that out at some point. At this point, I've pretty much managed to completely get rid of the need for my "Extend" layer.  I'll probably only start swapping it in when I'm forced to use software without proper text navigation capabilities and use caps as a different modifier (probably control which I'd use in some cases to do similar things as the Extend layer but with program-specific remappings). As a user of mostly vim-inspired software, I use escape a lot, so I disagree that having it on a layer is convenient. I think it's best put directly on a thumbkey or capslock. You can of course bind a key to both escape and a modifier with xcape on linux, karabiner on osx, and ahk on windows, so there's no need to put it on a layer in my opinion.

I think people often think too negatively about modifier keys - but this really only stems from the fact the most of the modifiers are in terrible locations on a standard keyboard.

For example, my backspace key is Extend-H (which on a "normal" keyboard would be the equivalent of LAlt-M). You might think that backspace, being a quite a common key (unless you are extremely accurate, which sadly I'm not) should have pride of place in the primary layer.  But actually Extend-H, despite being a two-key combo, is easier and more comfortable than the single default backspace key. I'd even go so far as to say it's probably better than over half of the single-keys on the keyboard.

That said, if you're not sold on Extend yet, then putting Escape on CapsLock sounds reasonable to me.