ok, so the dissonance between command/control for keyboard shortcuts between mac and unix was hurting me. i swapped the keys on unix for a while but the problem is that control-c is still used on mac in the terminal for control-c, so then it's physically command (alt)-c in terminal on linux, so no go there. i of course have caps lock as control.

the trick, i've found, is starting to use the physical caps lock key as the shortcut key on linux always.

this is such a pain in the ass.