Re: altwin:left_meta_win - emacs super and meta on same key

From	Lionel Élie Mamane <lionel@mamane.lu>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: altwin:left_meta_win - emacs super and meta on same key
Date	2026-05-21 13:00 +0200
Message-ID	<MX9i9-6LPd-1@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	<MX8P7-6LF7-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

Show all headers | View raw

On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 12:19:01PM +0200, Lionel Élie Mamane wrote:
> My /etc/default/keyboard contains

> XKBMODEL="microsoft4000"
> XKBLAYOUT="us"
> XKBVARIANT="euro"
> XKBOPTIONS="altwin:left_meta_win,compose:menu"
> BACKSPACE="guess"

> But now Emacs has started to treat the left Microsoft Windows logo
> key as meta _and_ super at the same time, so that any binding in
> emacs that uses Meta is unusable, because emacs will say I pressed
> M-s-FOO when I pressed left Microsoft Windows logo key + FOO, which
> used to be just M-FOO.

> "xmodmodmap" output:
> 
> shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
> lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
> control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
> mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_L (0xcc)
> mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
> mod3        ISO_Level5_Shift (0xcb)
> mod4        Meta_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Meta_L (0xcd),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
> mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c)
> 
> I tried "xmodmap -e 'remove mod4 = Super_R Super_L Hyper_L'" to get
> 
> mod4        Meta_L (0x85),  Meta_L (0xcd)
> 
> + start a new emacs, but it did not change anything.


I've had more success with

$ xmodmap -e 'remove mod4 = Meta_L'
$ xmodmap -e 'add mod1 = Meta_L'

which gives

mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Meta_L (0x85),  Alt_L (0xcc),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod4        Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)

(where from did Alt_L suddenly get into mod1 again???)
but now emacs treat both Alt_L and Meta_L (Microsoft Windows logo key)
as Meta; I tried "xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Alt_L'" which gives

mod1        Meta_L (0x85),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod4        Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)

but emacs still wrongly treats the Alt_L key as Meta.

But this in turns breaks using the Alt key for the window manager, the
Window manager now uses Meta_L (Microsoft Windows logo key) for Alt

Back to linux.debian.user | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar

Thread

altwin:left_meta_win - emacs super and meta on same key Lionel Élie Mamane <lionel@mamane.lu> - 2026-05-21 12:30 +0200
  Re: altwin:left_meta_win - emacs super and meta on same key Lionel Élie Mamane <lionel@mamane.lu> - 2026-05-21 13:00 +0200
  Re: altwin:left_meta_win - emacs super and meta on same key Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2026-05-21 22:30 +0200

csiph-web