Create Window key on PC-102 keyboard

I have an IBM PS-2 102-key keyboard that has a lovely feel and is very reliable. But it doesn’t have a Window key. I tried to re-map Pause to Shift_L in .Xmodmap. It mapped just fine, according to xev, but it doesn’t raise the KDE menu. xev says the Window key does other stuff too. How do I create a Window key for a PS-2 102-key keyboard?

Hi - I’m no input expert, but for what it’s worth, there are a few built-in options in Plasma for swapping around the mapping of special keys like Super, Meta, Ctrl, Alt, etc. that might be helpful?

Those can be found in System Settings > Keyboard > Key Bindings:

if the plasma desktop options don’t work for you (custom shortcuts is buggy), then you can try a package called input-remapper that i just used to remap the Pause key to the meta key (keycode 133).

once the app is installed, launched and you have given it root access, you select your keyboard device and in the Editor window choose +Add to map create a new key mapping

on the Input side choose Record to capture the Pause keystroke which will add it to the list.

on the Output side choose Key or Macro to enter the new mapping for the Pause key

KEY_LEFTMETA seems to work

now click on Apply and set the Autoload option and you should now have a windows key in linux everytime you reboot.

and i think i’m going to keep this mapping because having the Meta key open my applications menu in the upper right corner of my screen feels very natural with the Pause key being in the upper right corner of my keyboard

sometimes things just work out nice.

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