Key delay and repeat rate on X11

Goal: Understand and control your typematic rate and typematic delay. You’ll usually do this to make pressed-down keys repeat faster.

Dependencies: This guide works on the X Window System. You should first set up X if you have not yet done so.

References:

• ArchWiki: Xorg/Keyboard configuration
• ArchWiki: Linux console/Keyboard configuration

Typematic rate and delay

Context: Go to any location you can type text (a text editor, your web browser’s search bar, etc.), then press and hold down a key. After an initial delay, the key begins to repeat at a fixed rate. The initial delay between key press and the onset of repetition is called typematic delay, and the time between key repeats once repetition begins is called typematic rate.

A typical typematic delay is around 500 milliseconds, and typical typematic rates are on the order of 20 to 30 hertz (20 to 30 key repetitions per second).

Problem: these default values are too sluggish for most power users; this article shows how to speed them up.

Set rate and delay in X11

You can set the X11 typematic delay and repeat using the xset program, as suggested in ArchWiki: Xorg/Keyboard configuration/Using xset. To set a 200 ms delay and 30 Hz repeat rate (for example), run the following in shell:

xset r rate 200 30

The default values (according to the ArchWiki) are 660 ms and 25 Hz; experiment to find what works for you.

To make you custom typematic settings permanent, you need to run the xset command at the start of every graphical session. The exact way to do this depends on your setup; on the X Window System, you place the line xset r rate 200 30 in your ~/.xinitrc (if you do not use a display manager for login) or your ~/.xprofile (if you do use a display manager for login) before the line that starts your window manager or desktop environment.

# Place in ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xprofile to set for all X sessions
xset r rate 200 30

# Then start your window manager, e.g.
exec i3

(If you’re new to running configuration commands on X startup, check out the ArchWiki.

Set rate and delay in the Linux console

This section applies to the console you see immediately after booting and logging in, but before starting a graphical session. If you use a display manager to start X, you may never interact with the Linux console at all, and can probably skip this step.

You use kbdrate instead of xset to set typematic delay and rate for the Linux console. The equivalent of xset -r rate 200 30 is

sudo kbdrate -d 200 -r 30

You can use a systemd unit to make the change permanent at every boot. I suggest following the ArchWiki’s clear instructions at ArchWiki: Linux console/Keyboard configuration/Systemd service.