I’m running Debian 20.0.4 under XFCE4. I want to set up the left “Win” key (i.e., LWIN) on my keyboard as a dead key which can be used to output vowels with acute accents and which can be used to output the letter “n” with a tilde. For example:
LWIN + a => á
LWIN + n => ñ
... etc. ...
Based on internet searches and a few conversations I’ve had with others, I ended up trying a combination of setxkbmap and ~/.XCompose settings, as follows:
/usr/bin/setxkbmap -option compose:lwin
And in ~/.XCompose …
include "%L"
<Multi_key> <a> : "á"
<Multi_key> <A> : "Á"
<Multi_key> <e> : "é"
<Multi_key> <E> : "É"
<Multi_key> <i> : "í"
<Multi_key> <I> : "Í"
<Multi_key> <o> : "ó"
<Multi_key> <O> : "Ó"
<Multi_key> <u> : "ú"
<Multi_key> <U> : "Ú"
<Multi_key> <n> : "ñ"
<Multi_key> <N> : "Ñ"
However, all that seems to be happening is that I have to perform the following 3-keystroke combinations to get the results I want (for example) …
LWIN + ' + a => á
LWIN + ~ + n => ñ
... etc. ...
It seems like either the ~/.XCompose settings are being ignored and only xsetxkbmap is being honored, or perhaps there is something that is just simply incorrect about what I’m doing … ???
I don’t want to type any 3-keystroke sequence to get these special characters (and it’s actually 4 keystrokes for the tilde over the “n”, because I also need to press the Shift key to enter the tilde).
I’m looking for a 2-keystroke method to enter each and every one of these special characters.
Also, I do not want to set up the apostrophe ( ' ) as a dead key, because then I would need to specify a two-keystroke combination in order to enter a normal apostrophe, and I don’t want to do that. That’s why I would like a key that I normally don’t use (such as LWIN) to be a dead key that I can use for the 2-keystroke combinations.
Is there any way that I can accomplish this?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.
UPDATE: I tried this with /usr/bin/xmodmap -e "keysym Super_L = Multi_key" instead of the setxkbmap command, and it doesn’t work any better.
And I also tried the same things with the CapsLock key instead of LWIN, and these CapsLock versions don’t work, either.
FURTHER UPDATE: For anyone who doesn’t know what I mean by “dead key”, the following explains what that term means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_key .
