Reprogram ThinkPad Keyboards

Hey there,

is it possible to reprogram ThinkPad keyboards used in the current Lenovo models?
I'd like to switch some keys, especially that stupid Caps Lock key. On my desktop keyboard I have Ctrl at this position and I love it, would be awsome if I could do that on the ThinkPad, too.
I read that it was possible with some old ThinkPads - so is there still a way?

Another point: Any chance on getting a Lenovo ThinkPad keyboard with blank keys (w/o caption)?

 

Application "KeyExtender" will help you.
In my case, I added the right Shift as a Enter key, so the Enter itself now is much bigger

 

CHeck out this tool from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx

There is also a web site where you can configure your keyboard layout and it will output a .reg file you can then import into the registry. I use myself a different keyboard layout with this regsitry hack, because I have a english keyboard with German keys on it (bought a defect German keyboard to get the key caps and had a working english keyboard - figured out later there was 1 key less on the english keyboard ).

Works like a charme in XP and Vista, unlike in Linux. In Linux it's a nightmare with changing releases and updates.

 

I think you got me wrong. I'm no windows-user, so those windows tools won't help me anyway. I also have to disagree with you, ernstloeffel, because those things a windows-user needs separate tools to, are easily possible with unix and linux for 20 years or longer. Changing releases and updates always have been microsoft problems, with open linuxsystems it's far from beeing a nightmare. Of course, if you don't know about X, it may be a nightmare for a user who can't use the system.

However, I can change my caps-key to ctrl (remap via Xmodmap from keycode 66 to 37), but that doesn't change the fact, that the keyboard-LED think otherwise, and also it's not working without softwarechanges over all installed systems.

Edit:
In case anyone else is interested, it's trivial under X in linux and unix, no need to install a weird 3rd party tool or messing with systemwide configuration.
Just add this lines to your ~/.Xmodmap file (or any other xmodmap config file your distribution uses) and call xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap afterwards (or restart X, this will do it, too):

This will map the capslock-key (keycode 66) to a left ctrl key (your standard left ctrl key will still work of course).
If you have a special keyboard that doesn't use keycode 66 for Caps you can use the tool "xev" to find out what code you need. Just start xev, press the capslock-key and see what code it lists.

 

The standard way to do this now is not using xmodmap, it's to use Xkb. To change it, find the InputDevice section in your xorg.conf and make it look something like this:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

That will turn the caps-lock key into a control key. There are various other options to do things like change the ctrl key into an escape key, and so forth.

If you use Gnome, you can just change this stuff in the appropriate settings GUI. I don't, so I can't tell you exactly where.