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If you want to swap both the Command keys with the default Control key on Ubuntu 17.04 inverting what they do currently then this is for you.

Intro

Ubuntu thinks that the MacBook Pro has a standard 105 key keyboard (probably thinking about the full Apple Keyboard) but that is wrong.

This should work on any Macbook/MacBook Pro. The issue is that Xmodmap assigns the Super_L to the left and right command keys, and Control_L to the left control key.

Map the keycode using Xmodmap

Create a new file in your home directory.

$ touch ~/.Xmodmap
$ nano ~/.Xmodmap

Now add the following to you Xmodmap file.

clear control
clear mod4

keycode 105 =
keycode 206 =

keycode 133 = Control_L NoSymbol Control_L
keycode 134 = Control_R NoSymbol Control_R
keycode 37 = Super_L NoSymbol Super_L

add control = Control_L
add control = Control_R
add mod4 = Super_L

To test it run the following command:

$ xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

To make it run every time, add it to Startup Applications, the GUI Interface in Ubuntu. Now this was not easy for me to figure out but I figured out that you need to use absolute paths when adding an item to the Startup Applications.

In my instance this is the full path to my Xmodmap script:

/usr/bin/xmodmap /home/justin/.Xmodmap

Using your full path to Xmodmap create your new Startup Application like this:

Xmodmap

Credits

Adapted from kalaracey’s solution on this AskUbuntu thread.

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