If you’re a developer or a heavy terminal user, you know how essential the Escape key can be. Often, having it in a more accessible location, such as the Caps Lock key, can significantly improve your workflow. In this blog post, I’ll guide you through remapping the Caps Lock key to function as the Escape key in Ubuntu 24.04 using GNOME Tweaks. This method is straightforward and doesn’t require any deep system modifications.

Step 1: Install GNOME Tweaks

First, you’ll need to ensure that GNOME Tweaks is installed on your system. GNOME Tweaks is a powerful tool that allows you to customize various aspects of the GNOME desktop environment.

Open your terminal and run the following commands to install GNOME Tweaks:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Step 2: Open GNOME Tweaks

Once GNOME Tweaks is installed, you can open it from the application menu. Simply search for “Tweaks” and click on the GNOME Tweaks icon.

Step 3: Navigate to Keyboard & Mouse Settings

In the GNOME Tweaks window, navigate to the Keyboard & Mouse section on the left sidebar. This section contains various options to customize your keyboard and mouse behavior.

Step 4: Access Additional Layout Options

Within the Keyboard & Mouse section, you’ll find an option labeled Additional Layout Options. Click on it to expand a new window with several advanced keyboard settings.

Step 5: Modify Caps Lock Key Behavior

Scroll down to find the Caps Lock key behavior section. Click on it to expand the options. Here, you’ll see multiple choices for remapping the Caps Lock key.

To remap Caps Lock to Escape, select the option Make Caps Lock an additional Esc. This setting will make your Caps Lock key function as an Escape key.

I hope this guide has been helpful.