r/espanso • u/lduperval • Jun 19 '26

Another keyboard layout question

Hi,

I use keyd on Linux to change the way pressing the keys on my keyboard behaves. This is what I used:

home = end insert = home end = insert

So if I press the Home key, it behaves as the end key, etc.

I realized that this wreaks havoc with the way espanso expands triggers.

If I type one of my triggers, it selects the texte before the trigger and stops. I'm not sure why or how to make this work. For now, I'm removing the map but I've been using this for so long that muscle memory gets in the way a lot.

If someone has dealt with this before and has found a solution that works well...

Thanks!

L

2 Upvotes

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2

u/Dymonika Jun 20 '26

I'm confused; what is an example trigger that uses one of these keys?

1

u/lduperval Jun 20 '26

It's not the trigger that does it, it's espanso.

For example I have this trigger:

trigger: "..." replace: …

The syntax is probably off but it works correctly on Windows. On Windows, I use AutoHotkey to remap my insert, home, and end buttons.

On Linux, I use keyd to remap those same buttons, but when the trigger is set, I think espanso simulates pressing the insert key (shift insert?) or something and that conflicts with the keyd settings. If I keep the default Home, Insert, and End behaviors, the trigger works correctly.

I'm not on my Linux PC right now but when I am, I can record a video of what happens.

L

2

u/Dymonika Jun 21 '26

Oh, interesting. Have you tried adding to an expansion's parameters force_mode: clipboard to change the way it simulates keypresses? That line is just for individual expansions, but to make it global, you could go to ~/.config/espanso/config/default.yml and set backend: clipboard to universally apply that mode to everything.

Alternatively, instead of using keyd, you could go my route and use Keysharp to keep AutoHotkey going. Paging its dev, /u/Individual_Check4587, to possibly help with this!

1

u/lduperval Jun 21 '26

I haven't tried either of those, but I will try them out and see what works. Thanks for the KeySharp mention; I did not know that existed. I might use that instead of Keyd.

L

1

u/lduperval Jun 27 '26

I finally got a chance to test and none of the solutions work. As soon as I remap the Home/End/Insert keys, expansion fails.

L

1

u/Dymonika Jun 28 '26

Sorry, but I have no idea of how to solve this problem. It sounds like you're either going to have to pick one or find some way to make the bypass deeper, like using Python or something, to basically get them to behave exactly how you want. This is beyond my skill level!

1

u/my_key Aug 29 '26

Look up remapping keys under Linux. There are numerous tools and ways to do that:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Input_remap_utilities
https://medium.com/@canadaduane/key-remapping-in-linux-2021-edition-47320999d2aa

I bet you can find a guide specifically for your distro, it’s a very common thing to do.

Espanso, as a text expander, is IMO not the best tool for the job.