Multimedia keys and non-cyclic switching of keyboard layouts

[voltron]

After installing Debian 8.2 I tested my multimedia keys and they all are correctly detected by xev and works as expected. Then I start to configure my keyboard.

I need to use three keyboard layouts EN, UA and RU. By default I can switch between them using selected keyboard shortcut with following pattern: en→ua→ru→en→ua... But I want to switch layouts independently, using different keys for each layout, for example:

• CapsLock — enable EN layout
• Shift+CapsLock — enable UA layout
• Ctrl+CapsLock — enable RU layout

After googling and reading different forums I come to following solution (here is documents and discussion in russian). Create files

/usr/share/X11/xkb/compat/mycompat

Code: Select all

 
default partial xkb_compatibility "default"  {
   interpret Mae_Koho {
       action= LockGroup(group=3);
   };
   interpret Zen_Koho {
       action= LockGroup(group=4);
   };
};

/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/mysymbol

Code: Select all

partial modifier_keys xkb_symbols "caps_1" {
    key <CAPS> {
        [ ISO_First_Group, ISO_Last_Group ]
    };
};

partial modifier_keys xkb_symbols "caps_2" {
    key <CAPS> {
        [ ISO_First_Group ]
    };
    key <RCTL> {
        [ ISO_Last_Group ]
    };
};

partial modifier_keys xkb_symbols "caps_4" {
    replace key <CAPS> {
				type = "FOUR_GROUPS",
        [ ISO_First_Group, ISO_Last_Group, Mae_Koho, Zen_Koho ]
    };
};

/usr/share/X11/xkb/types/mytype

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partial xkb_types "four_groups" {
    type "FOUR_GROUPS" {
        modifiers = Shift+Control;
        map[None] = Level1;
        map[Shift] = Level2;
        map[Control] = Level3;
        map[Control+Shift] = Level4;
        level_name[Level1] = "Base";
        level_name[Level2] = "Shift";
        level_name[Level3] = "Ctrl";
        level_name[Level4] = "Ctrl Shift";
    };
};

And use command to setup keyboard

Code: Select all

setxkbmap -symbols "pc+us:1+ua(winkeys):2+ru:3+us(dvorak):4+compose(ralt)+mysymbol(caps_4)" -types "complete+mytype(four_groups)" -compat "complete+mycompat" -print | xkbcomp - $DISPLAY &>/dev/null

This works perfectly, but all multimedia keys now not recognized by xev and as result they does not work. I know that I can use xmodmap to map keys, but maybe same result can be achieved by fixing some of the newly created files or setxkbmap+xkbcomp command listed above.