Can i turn off capslock on my keyboard without using the physical button?

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1

AFTER INSTALLING A COLEMAK-BASED KEYBOARD LAYOUT TO XKB CONFIGURATION FILES MY CAPSLOCK WAS REMAPPED TO BACKSPACE. DUE TO SOME GLITCH IT AFFECTED ALL KEYBOARD LAYOUTS. WAS NOT A HUGE PROBLEM, I’M LIVING WITH THAT FOR A WHILE.

NOW IDK WHAT HAPPENED, BUT CAPSLOCK STATE WAS ACTIVATED AND I CAN NOT TURN IF OFF. IS THERE SOME COMMAND I MAY SEND IN ORDER TO TURN IT OFF? IT SHOULD NOT BE JUST “PRESS <CAPS> BUTTON” COMMAND BECAUSE IT IS REMAPPED AND WILL REGISTER AS <BKSP>. IT SHOULD SEND THE CAPSLOCK COMMAND.

Typing one more sentence painstakingly holding shift because it won’t let me post otherwise.

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2

The following worked for me:

$ sudo dnf install go libxkbcommon-devel scdoc
$ git clone https://git.sr.ht/~geb/dotool
$ cd dotool
$ ./build.sh && sudo ./build.sh install
$ sudo udevadm control --reload && sudo udevadm trigger
$ echo key capslock | dotool
$ # HELLO WORLD
$ echo key capslock | dotool
$ # hello world
$

source: ~geb/dotool - Command to simulate input anywhere (X11, Wayland, TTYs) - sourcehut git

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# CapsLock toggle
sudo dnf install ydotool
sudo systemctl restart ydotool.service
sudo YDOTOOL_SOCKET="/tmp/.ydotool_socket" ydotool key 58:1 58:0

# CapsLock LED toggle
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/input*::capslock/brightness > /dev/null
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/input*::capslock/brightness > /dev/null

# Hardware check
sudo libinput debug-events --show-keycodes
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4

LED TOGGLE WORKS, BUT THE FIRST PART DOES NOTHINg.

6

I RAN IT MANY TIMES. IS YOUR CAPSLOCK REMAPPED TO SOMETHING THROUGH XKB? MAYBE IT REGISTERS AS BACKSPACe?

7

NO, DOES NOT WORK. MAYBE IT ACTIVATES BACKSPACE, CAN’T CHECK WITH XEv.

9

OUTPUT WITH BARTHOLOMEW’S SOLUTION:

Failed to open /dev/input/event22 (No such file or directory)
Failed to open /dev/input/event23 (No such file or directory)
Failed to open /dev/input/event24 (No such file or directory)

WITH YOUR SOLUTION:

 event3   KEYBOARD_KEY                +10.937s	KEY_ENTER (28) pressed
-event21  KEYBOARD_KEY                +11.063s	KEY_CAPSLOCK (58) pressed
 event21  KEYBOARD_KEY                +11.075s	KEY_CAPSLOCK (58) released
-event3   KEYBOARD_KEY                +11.095s	KEY_ENTER (28) released

IT REGISTERS AS CAPSLOCK PRESS, BUT DOES NO EFFECT. I WILL TRY TO REBOOT THE SYSTEM.

10

Fixed it. A simple logout/login was sufficient to reset the capslock state.

1 Like
11

Just for the record, the man page states that you might need to add your user to the input group.

PERMISSION
       dotool requires write permission to /dev/uinput, which is granted to users in group input by a udev rule.

       You can test:

           echo type hello | dotool

       and if need be, you could add your user to group input with:

           groupadd -f input
           usermod -a -G input $USER

       and then it's foolproof to reboot to make the group and rule effective.