pyratelog

commit 418d6cfc98160b23e98f0f02a3267dd6063ed45e
parent 943808d0de753c5536d974949cfa0b3379a75b5e
Author: pyratebeard <root@pyratebeard.net>
Date:   Thu, 25 Aug 2022 20:13:46 +0100

colemak_+2

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entry/colemak_+2.md
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+It has now been [8 months](20220113-colemak_exp.html) since I started using the Colemak keyboard layout.  After [a few initial issues](20220214-colemak_lvl_up.html) things are going well.
+
+Vim navigation is no longer a problem, I am comfortable with the new positions of h, j, k, and l.  In the last month or so I have also acquired a second keyboard, so I have one permanently configured with QWERTY and can quickly switch them around.  This has made dealing with VMs much easier.
+
+## patch all the things
+A new issue that arose was on updating the xorg packages.  The update replaced /usr/share/X11/xkb files, thus removing my colemak-ctrl custom config.
+
+After a bit of digging I found that I could put my colemak-ctrl setting into its own file under /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/, instead of the 'us' file.  I also found that I don't necessarily need the entries in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.{lst,xml}.  For reference /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/colemak-ctrl looks like this
+```
+// colemak-ctrl
+partial alphanumeric_keys
+xkb_symbols "colemak-ctrl" {
+    // include standard colemak layout
+    include "us(colemak)"
+
+    key <CAPS> { [ Control_L, Control_L, Control_L, Control_L ] };
+};
+```
+
+Now instead of selecting the variant
+```
+setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps us -variant colemak-ctrl
+```
+
+I can incant
+```
+setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps colemak-ctrl
+```
+
+## these boots are made for typing
+The keymap on boot issue was also resolved by adding the following to /etc/vconsole.conf
+```
+KEYMAP=colemak-ctrl
+```
+
+Then I included the keymap hook before the encrypt hook in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
+```
+HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block keymap encrypt lvm2 filesystems keyboard fsck)
+```
+
+I also set the keymap for X11 by adding the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.g/20-keyboard.conf
+```
+Section "InputClass"
+    Identifier "keyboard"
+    MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
+    Option "XkbLayout" "colemak-ctrl"
+EndSection
+```
+
+## neverending story
+I can confidently say I am now a Colemak user.  In the beginning I thought this little experiment wouldn't last and by now I would have returned to QWERTY, but quite the opposite in fact.  I feel at home using Colemak as my daily driver, and even looked into replacing the keyboard on my laptop with Colemak.
+
+Hopefully my journey will inspire somebody else to give it a go.