Kinto

- Type in Linux like it's a Mac. -

Cmd = Ctrl+Shift for all terminals.

Note: As of version 1.0 Kinto no longer maps Cmd/Alt to Super while using the Terminal, it is now mapping to Ctrl+Shift by default. Please reset your terminal's keymaps back to their defaults.

Gnome-terminal reset

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/keybindings/

What does this do exactly?

Kinto works for standard Windows, Apple and Chromebook keyboards. The following however describes the dynamic rebinding based on a standard Windows keyboard. (Alt location is Cmd for Apple keyboards)

• Normal apps - Alt will be Ctrl, Win/Super will be Alt, Ctrl will be Win/Super

• Terminal apps - Alt will be Ctrl+Shift, Win/Super will be Alt, Ctrl will be Ctrl

• Cursor/word-wise shortcut keys have been added to align with macOS keyboard shortcuts.

What does Kinto require?

• Python (initial install only)
• systemd
• x11
• Debian/Ubuntu based distro 16.04+

If you need kintox11 recompiled for your distro please let me know and I will add a binary for your distro if my binary fails.

You can also attempt to compile kintox11.c on your system as well, but you will need to compile and install json-c first as its libraries will be required to compile and run the program.

Wayland support is planned, but not ready yet.

How to install

1. clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto.git

2. Install python3 (If needed)

Debian or Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3

3. Follow the prompts and the script will guide you through the rest of the setup.

./setup.py

JSON config files

Features

• Unlimited keyboard configurations per App/category (user_config.json - config -> create app object)
• Dynamic Desktop Environment shortcut capabilities (user_config.json - de -> create DE tweak/remap)

Located at ~/.config/kinto/ you will find user_config.json which will look like the following after an install. You can modify the defaults.json file in the root directory of kinto to create additional keyboard layout types/support without needing to modify any of the underlying Kinto code.

You can also add additional Desktop Environment related tweaks to user_config.json in the install directory as well and the installer will prompt you to install them. You may also fork and submit any json or additional .xkb configurations to me for approval if you believe it makes Linux more like typing on a Mac.

{"config":[{
		"name":"gui",
		"run":"setxkbmap -option;xkbcomp -w0 -I$HOME/.xkb ~/.xkb/keymap/kbd.mac.gui $DISPLAY",
		"de":[2],
		"appnames":[ "" ]
	},
	{
		"name":"term",
		"run":"setxkbmap -option;xkbcomp -w0 -I$HOME/.xkb ~/.xkb/keymap/kbd.mac.term $DISPLAY",
		"de":[2],
		"appnames":[ "Gnome-terminal","konsole","io.elementary.terminal","terminator","sakura","guake","tilda","xterm","eterm" ]
	}],
	"init": [1],
	"detypes":["gnome2","gnome3","kde4","kde5","xfce","i3wm"],
	"de":[{
		"id": 1,
		"type": ["gnome3"],
		"active": false,
		"intent":"init",
		"name":"gnome-init",
		"description":"Gnome - Remove Superkey Overlay keybinding to Activities Overview",
		"run":"gsettings set org.gnome.mutter overlay-key ''",
		"run_term":"",
		"run_gui":""
	},
	{
		"id": 2,
		"type": ["gnome3"],
		"active": false,
		"intent":"gui_term",
		"name":"Gnome Activities Overview",
		"description":"Cmd+Space activates Activities Overview",
		"run":"",
		"run_term":"gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings panel-main-menu \"['<Control><Shift>Space']\"",
		"run_gui":"gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings panel-main-menu \"['<Ctrl>Space']\""
	},
	{
		"id": 3,
		"type": ["kde5"],
		"active": false,
		"intent":"init",
		"name":"kde-init",
		"description":"KDE Plasma 5 - Removes Superkey Overlay from the Launcher Menu",
		"run":"kwriteconfig5 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta \"\";qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure",
		"run_term":"",
		"run_gui":""
	}]
}

How to Control Kinto

Under systemd this is how you control Kinto.

Status

systemctl --user status keyswap

Stop

systemctl --user stop keyswap

Start

systemctl --user start keyswap

Restart

systemctl --user restart keyswap

Enable

systemctl --user enable keyswap

Disable

systemctl --user disable keyswap

Learning macOS style hotkeys on Linux

You can use websites like https://www.shortcutfoo.com in Google Chrome while using the terminal style keymap, but Firefox is not compatible due to detecting "cmd" as keycode 224. Chrome detects Win/Super/Cmd as keycode 91 on all OS's.

To make sure you are in the terminal style keymap you can just simply open the terminal and turn off the kinto service, and then switch back to Chrome.

systemctl --user stop keyswap && setxkbmap -option;setxkbmap -option altwin:swap_alt_win

Troubleshooting

Does not start when you log in or after you reboot?

1. Check the status

systemctl --user status keyswap

2. Check the service journal

journalctl -xe

Open a ticket and send me the info.

Keyswap is not occurring, but it was working.

Now that Kinto is using a custom written C program I am not aware of any specific bugs or issues, but you can start here if you having difficulties and please report it if it is reproducible.

1. Get status

systemctl --user status keyswap

2. Restart Kinto

systemctl --user restart keyswap

3. Check the Status again and open a ticket if you need to.

systemctl --user status keyswap

You can also do the following to see if it is an actual issue with kintox11 not running or your service file.

cd ~/.config/kinto
./kintox11

Language Support

I'd appreciate any help from people with non-US based keyboards, to help ensure that these keymaps and keyswap methods work in all or most languages.

If you would like to attempt adding additional custom keymaps for other languages then I strongly recommend reading Glen Whitney's post here. https://superuser.com/questions/385748/binding-superc-superv-to-copy-and-paste

Contributing

I welcome any and all contributors who want to contribute something to this project.

If you are specifically wanting to contribute additional custom keymaps to help with aligning Kinto's behavior to that of a mac keyboard then I would strongly recommend that you read Glen Whitney's comment on Superuser (the link is below). You may also look at the .xkb directory, mac_wordwise.sh and xactive.sh files to better understand how Kinto operates so that you can test your own keymaps without having to use the systemd service or running the xactive.sh script.

https://superuser.com/questions/385748/binding-superc-superv-to-copy-and-paste

More information about Kinto

https://medium.com/@benreaves/kinto-v1-0-released-2018e6401d2e https://medium.com/@benreaves/kinto-a-mac-inspired-keyboard-mapping-for-linux-58f731817c0

License

GPL v2