Impetus

Linux lacks a good key remapping solution. In order to achieve satisfactory results a medley of tools need to be employed (e.g xcape, xmodmap) with the end result often being tethered to a specified environment (X11). keyd attempts to solve this problem by providing a flexible system wide daemon which remaps keys using kernel level input primitives (evdev, uinput).

Features

keyd has several unique features many of which are traditionally only found in custom keyboard firmware like QMK. Some of the more interesting ones include:

• Layers.
• Key overloading (different behaviour on tap/hold).
• Per keyboard configuration.
• Instantaneous remapping (no flashing required).
• A simple and intuitive config format.
• Being display server agnostic (works on wayland and virtual console alike).

Dependencies

• make
• gcc
• libudev

Installation

git clone https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd
cd keyd
sudo apt-get install libudev-dev # Debian specific install the corresponding package on your distribution
make && sudo make install

Quickstart

1. Install keyd

2. Put the following in /etc/keyd/default.cfg:

# Turns capslock into an escape key when pressed and a control key when held.
capslock = mods_on_hold(C, esc)

# Remaps the escape key to capslock
esc = capslock

3. Run sudo systemctl restart keyd

4. See the man page for a comprehensive list of all config options.

Sample Config File

# Maps escape to the escape layer when held and the escape key when pressed

esc = layer_on_hold(escape_layer, esc)

[escape_layer]

1 = layer_toggle(dvorak)
2 = layer_toggle(default)

# Creates a dvorak layer which inherits from the default layer. Without
# explicitly inheriting from another layer unmapped keys would be ignored.

[dvorak:default]

q = apostrophe
w = comma
e = dot
r = p
t = y
y = f
u = g
i = c
o = r
p = l

a = a
s = o
d = e
f = u
g = i
h = d
j = h
k = t
l = n
semicolon = s

z = semicolon
x = q
c = j
v = k
b = x
n = b
m = m
comma = w
dot = v
slash = z