On one of my machines, xmodmap runs during XQuartz startup but the changes it makes do not stick. In my setup (Mavericks, XQuartz 2.7.5), I have a simple .xmodmap to switch Mod1 and Mod2: clear Mod1 clear Mod2 add Mod1 = Meta_L Meta_R add Mod2 = Mode_switch I run my .xinitrc with `/bin/sh -x', so system.log shows what .xinitrc is doing: 23.01.14 20:49:09,867 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: xauth: file /home/crestani/.serverauth.89293 does not exist 23.01.14 20:49:11,927 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: XFree86_VT property unexpectedly has 0 items instead of 1 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + userresources=/home/crestani/.Xdefaults 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + usermodmap=/home/crestani/.xmodmap 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + '[' -f /etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources ']' 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + '[' -f /etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap ']' 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + '[' -f /home/crestani/.Xdefaults ']' 23.01.14 20:49:12,044 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + xrdb -merge /home/crestani/.Xdefaults 23.01.14 20:49:12,083 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + '[' -f /home/crestani/.xmodmap ']' 23.01.14 20:49:12,083 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + xmodmap /home/crestani/.xmodmap 23.01.14 20:49:12,086 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + xset -b 23.01.14 20:49:12,088 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + xmodmap 23.01.14 20:49:12,090 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89292]: + exec quartz-wm It runs `xmodmap /home/crestani/.xmodmap', but when app_to_run (xterm) launches, the changes are no longer there: crestani@bender [~] xmodmap xmodmap: up to 2 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses): shift Shift_L (0x40), Shift_R (0x44) lock Caps_Lock (0x41) control Control_L (0x43), Control_R (0x46) mod1 Mode_switch (0x42), Mode_switch (0x45) mod2 Meta_L (0x3f), Meta_R (0x47) mod3 mod4 mod5 I can run xmodmap manually, then the xmodmap settings are correct and stick as long as XQuartz is running. crestani@bender [~] xmodmap /home/crestani/.xmodmap crestani@bender [~] xmodmap xmodmap: up to 2 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses): shift Shift_L (0x40), Shift_R (0x44) lock Caps_Lock (0x41) control Control_L (0x43), Control_R (0x46) mod1 Meta_L (0x3f), Meta_R (0x47) mod2 Mode_switch (0x42), Mode_switch (0x45) mod3 mod4 mod5 For debugging, I log the result of `xmodmap'[1] in .xinitrc immediatly before it execs quartz-wm (see second to last line in the system.log excerpt above). It showed the desired mapping (mod1 is Meta and mod2 is Mode_switch). There must be something undoing my xmodmap settings between the time my machine finishes .xinitrc and the time the first xterm comes up. I suspect some race condition, possibly with xkb. Does anybody have a guess or a hint what I should observe to identify the problem? Is the xkb error in org.macosforge.xquartz.log related to my problem? [3232113.457] (II) GLX: Initialized Core OpenGL GL provider for screen 0 [3232113.575] X11.app: DarwinProcessFDAdditionQueue_thread: Sleeping to allow xinitrc to catchup. [3232113.596] (EE) Error loading keymap /tmp/server-30.xkm [3232113.596] (EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead. [3232115.602] noPseudoramiXExtension=0, pseudoramiXNumScreens=1 [3232116.578] Calling ListenOnOpenFD() for new fd: 8 Is xmodmap still the recommended way to modify keyboard mappings in XQuartz or should I switch to xkb? How would I change the xkb configuration, since as far as I understand XQuartz does not use a static xkb configuration but instead generates the configuration dynamically from OS X's keyboard settings? Thanks for your help! Footnotes: [1] I needed to redirect xmodmap's output to a file but I was not able to find the location to where the output of the commands that are called by .xinitrc gets logged. Does anybody know where the output is logged? -- Marcus