Ygtjki

I followed some post a while ago, and it said to make an ~/.xmodmap file like so:

! Swap caps lock and escape
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Escape = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
add Lock = Caps_Lock

I did, and it now I can swap esc and caps lock by doing xmodmap ~/.xmodmap. I wanted this to be permanent, so I added that command to my ~/.bash_profile, but it doesn't seem to work; I still have to manually xmodmap. As an EEng dropout, I am tempted to just rewire my keyboard }:-) but I know there must be a better way. How can I make this work, permanently?

Execute xfce4-settings-manager, in Session and Startup -> Application autostart, add an entry, which executes xmodmap ~/.xmodmap

Or rename the file to ~/.Xmodmap

xkb has an option that does just that:

caps:swapescape Swap ESC and Caps Lock

so you could simply add¹

/usr/bin/setxkbmap -option "caps:swapescape"

to your XFCE autostart items.

^{1: there might be a better way to do this but I'm not a XFCE user}

In Xfce on Opensuse I swapped my Esc and Caps Lock keys by editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf file as explained at the archlinux wiki. I added a line that says

Option "XkbOptions" "caps:swapescape"

to the section that starts with

Section "InputClass"

then restarted my computer and the deed was done.

Back up the file before you edit it. If you make a mistake your gui might not start and you will have to restore or edit the file from a command prompt. In Ubuntu I recall that I had to put add the option line in a keyboard configuration file that had a different name.

Using the .Xmodmap didn't work for me.

However, a quick man xmodmap says that this works and did:

.xmodmaprc

which can be executed:

xmodmap .xmodmaprc

EDIT: ack...I'm wrong...the default did change a few years ago to .Xmodmap
from .xmodmaprc. Creating the .Xmodmap file caused my xfce to load "funny".
In .bash_profile, I put:

xmodmap .xmodmaprc

Then it worked, and I have a script that restarted my Xfce so it all works.

I'd been performing a similar adjustment (/usr/bin/setxkbmap -variant altgr-intl -option 'ctrl:nocaps') by putting it in the application autostart, as mentioned by another answer. However, at some point it stopped working for me, so here's my alternative approach:

From the Settings menu, choose "Removable Drives and Media", then the "Input Devices" tab. Enable the option to "Automatically run a program when a USB keyboard is connected" and enter the setkbmap command of your choice.