Overwrite Console Key Mapping Ctrl+Alt+F1

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After an Ubuntu 14.04 / KDE 4 update, I had the problem that the key strokes Alt+F1 … Alt+F12 switched to the console terminal, also Alt+? and Alt+?. Normally this is bound to Ctrl+Alt+Function-Key. I still don’t know why it has changed, but of course I wanted to get rid of this disturbing behaviour, since I have other actions on these keys. It was quite difficult to find the necessary instructions, so I describe it here:

The configuration is in /etc/console-setup:

• On boot, /etc/init/console-setup.conf loads /etc/console-setup/cached.kmap.gz
• The tty-consoles are named Console_1 … Console_12
• Find a specific key code:
  • Use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to a terminal
  • Call showkey — this does not work in the desktop
• Backup the current configuration: dumpkeys > backup.kmap
• Copy backup.kmap and edit the new file according to your needs
• For my whishes, remove all console related hot keys, except for Ctrl+Alt combinations:
  • Create the new key map file:

    sudo -Hi
    cd /etc/console-setup
    dumpkeys > backup.kmap
    sed '/^\t*control\t*alt\t*keycode.*Console_/!{/Console_/d};/\(De\|In\)cr_Console/d;' backup.kmap > mrw.kmap
    loadkeys mrw.kmap
    

  • Load and test the new key map file:

    loadkeys mrw.kmap
    

  • Edit /etc/init/console-setup.conf, change /etc/console-setup/cached.kmap.gz to /etc/console-setup/mrw.keymap:

    description     "set console keymap"
    
    start on (virtual-filesystems
              or starting rcS
              or starting mountall-shell)
    
    task
    
    exec loadkeys /etc/console-setup/mrw.kmap
    

• Restore the old behaviour, call sudo loadkeys /etc/console-setup/backup.kmap and change back /etc/init/console-setup.conf.