Table of Contents

Caps lock and control

KDE

System settings → Region and language → Keyboard layout → Advanced → Ctrl key position → Swap control and caps lock

XFCE

Applications → Settings → Settings Manager → Session and Startup → Application autostart → +Add 

 /usr/bin/setxkbmap -option "ctrl:swapcaps"

Older version (before GUI settings)

Putting the following in ~/.config/autostart/caps-lock-ctrl-swap.desktop seems to work most of the time:

caps-lock-ctrl-swap.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=setxkbmap
Exec=/usr/bin/setxkbmap -option "ctrl:swapcaps"
Hidden=false

Console

Debian uses the X keyboard maps for the console too, but configures them differently.