Hello all,
I allready mentionned this problem, but it seems to get worse recently:
I use Keyboard Layouts (enabled through Trinity Control Center). I set "German (Switzerland) ch, fr variant, as first Layout, with English (US) as second option.
This works fine, except that I often loose the function of the "Alt Gr" key (for those who only know the US keyboard, Alt Gr is necessary to access a bunch of characters we use in non-English languages.
This in inconvenient as it means I loose {} and [], but as I don-t program a lot... However we need the Alt Gr key also to get @, and it so happens that I use it in passwords that usually have to be typed in blind.
I know where to find it on the US keyboard, but I have no way to know if my Alt Gr works or not before a password fails.
This is independent from distribution (I had hoped that switching to Jessie and 14.0.2 would help, but not).
What I don't know is what is causing the problem. The rest of the keyboard layout continues to work, only Alt Gr is gone. So far only loging out and in cures the problem.
Anyone has a clue to what causes this?
Thierry
On Friday 15 January 2016, Thierry de Coulon wrote:
Hello all, This works fine, except that I often loose the function of the "Alt Gr" key (for those who only know the US keyboard, Alt Gr is necessary to access a bunch of characters we use in non-English languages. This is independent from distribution (I had hoped that switching to Jessie and 14.0.2 would help, but not).
What I don't know is what is causing the problem. The rest of the keyboard layout continues to work, only Alt Gr is gone. So far only loging out and in cures the problem.
Anyone has a clue to what causes this?
Same problem here. It seems to be new, I'm on R14.0.2 (on Mint). I haven't observed this before. I searched for a work around without necessity to log out (to many open windows to restall) and I found one. I opened the Keyboard Layout dialog and un-checked the Enable Keyboard Layouts" (switched it off" and voila, the Alt-Gr reapears again.
Now a solution but better than nothing. Gerhard
On Friday 15 January 2016 22.59:25 Gerhard Zintel wrote:
Same problem here. It seems to be new, I'm on R14.0.2 (on Mint). I haven't observed this before. I searched for a work around without necessity to log out (to many open windows to restall) and I found one. I opened the Keyboard Layout dialog and un-checked the Enable Keyboard Layouts" (switched it off" and voila, the Alt-Gr reapears again.
Thanks Gerhard for this hint. I'll try it as soon as I get the problem again (this should be soon I'm afraid) and confirm it works.
Thierry
Thierry de Coulon wrote:
What I don't know is what is causing the problem. The rest of the keyboard layout continues to work, only Alt Gr is gone. So far only loging out and in cures the problem.
This is strange as I never had a problem with the keyboard. I have DE,US,BG,RU at home and DE,CH,US,BG in the office.
I use jessie with TDE 14.0.2
What debian version do you have and what TDE?
Perhaps you should check the settings - example disable external xkb or alike.
German - nodeadkeys ... for CH I don't know which variant is setup ATM.
If its not a setting, it could software defect for the keyboard model (did you try with another one) or even a hardware defect.
regards
On Saturday 16 January 2016 13.44:38 deloptes wrote:
Thierry de Coulon wrote:
What I don't know is what is causing the problem. The rest of the keyboard layout continues to work, only Alt Gr is gone. So far only loging out and in cures the problem.
This is strange as I never had a problem with the keyboard. I have DE,US,BG,RU at home and DE,CH,US,BG in the office.
I use jessie with TDE 14.0.2
What debian version do you have and what TDE?
Same as you do.
Perhaps you should check the settings - example disable external xkb or alike.
I've got "Enable keyboard layouts" checked, with Swiss and US keyboards selected. I've noted I had left the default "104-key", I've changed to 105 - could that make a change?
AFAIK I have no other xkb option set.
German - nodeadkeys ... for CH I don't know which variant is setup ATM.
I use the deadkeys, so my variant is simply fr
If its not a setting, it could software defect for the keyboard model (did you try with another one) or even a hardware defect.
I can rule this out, I've used several keyboards - mostly Lenovo keyboards , the one I'm typing on is brand new Unicomp.
There is on thing however: there is a USB switch between the keyboard and the computer. I'd have to test if this happens on the other computers connected, but I seldom have to use these keys on them because they have special uses (video, backup).
regards
Thanks for helping :)
Thierry
Thierry de Coulon wrote:
I've got "Enable keyboard layouts" checked, with Swiss and US keyboards selected. I've noted I had left the default "104-key", I've changed to 105
- could that make a change?
yes I have the 105. you could actually play with setxkbmap directly
setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout de -variant nodeadkeys setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout us setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout ru -variant phonetic
AFAIK I have no other xkb option set.
The last tab is about xkb setup and I had some funny behavior.
The last thing that comes to my mind is xorg.conf
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard1" # Driver "kbd" Driver "evdev" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbRules" "base" Option "XkbLayout" "us(euro),de(nodeadkeys),bg(phonetic)" Option "XkbVariant" "qwerty,qwertz,qwerty" EndSection
then it goes low level usb chipset driver and some kernel options if you have more exotic kbd. Mine is some of the cheapest
good luck
regards
On Saturday 16 January 2016 14.20:18 deloptes wrote:
The last thing that comes to my mind is xorg.conf
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard1" # Driver "kbd" Driver "evdev" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbRules" "base" Option "XkbLayout" "us(euro),de(nodeadkeys),bg(phonetic)" Option "XkbVariant" "qwerty,qwertz,qwerty" EndSection
This is interresting. Actually I have _no_ xorg.conf ; Googling a little I found "If xorg.conf is missing for some reason, Xorg will probe your hardware on every startup. Though this works fine in most cases, some settings remain inaccessible."
It does not really explain why I would _loose_ the alt gr key (I would understand if I never got it to work). I could also understand if I reverted to the US keyboard, but actually all the other key still follow the swiss-french setup.
Anyway, I'll create an xorg.conf file and see if that helps.
Thierry
On Saturday 16 of January 2016 14:49:00 Thierry de Coulon wrote:
On Saturday 16 January 2016 14.20:18 deloptes wrote:
The last thing that comes to my mind is xorg.conf
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard1" # Driver "kbd" Driver "evdev" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbRules" "base" Option "XkbLayout" "us(euro),de(nodeadkeys),bg(phonetic)" Option "XkbVariant" "qwerty,qwertz,qwerty" EndSection
This is interresting. Actually I have _no_ xorg.conf ; Googling a little I found "If xorg.conf is missing for some reason, Xorg will probe your hardware on every startup. Though this works fine in most cases, some settings remain inaccessible."
It does not really explain why I would _loose_ the alt gr key (I would understand if I never got it to work). I could also understand if I reverted to the US keyboard, but actually all the other key still follow the swiss-french setup.
Anyway, I'll create an xorg.conf file and see if that helps.
Thierry
I use a standard Czech keyboard (set in TDE), and AltGr I use very often. It's been a long time since my xorg as follows:
Section "ServerFlags" BlankTime 1 StandbyTime 5 SuspendTime 8 OffTime 10 EndSection
Nothing more, nothing less == I set that after logout, the screen went into sleep mode faster.
On Saturday 16 January 2016 15.03:46 Slávek Banko wrote:
I use a standard Czech keyboard (set in TDE), and AltGr I use very often. It's been a long time since my xorg as follows:
Section "ServerFlags" BlankTime 1 StandbyTime 5 SuspendTime 8 OffTime 10 EndSection
Nothing more, nothing less == I set that after logout, the screen went into sleep mode faster.
-- Slávek
Hello Slávek,
Maybe I did not understand right, but (at least on openSUSE) an xorg.conf with only this results in a not working X
Thierry de Coulon wrote:
It does not really explain why I would loose the alt gr key (I would understand if I never got it to work). I could also understand if I reverted to the US keyboard, but actually all the other key still follow the swiss-french setup.
This was a suggestion in conjunction to keyboard and Xorg trying to guess your hardware. So check first the Xorg.0.log and see what input it discovers and configures there. If necessary try with a custom Xorg config file. You can get the base line with
-configure When this option is specified, the Xorg server loads all video driver modules, probes for available hardware, and writes out an initial xorg.conf(5) file based on what was detected. This option currently has some problems on some platforms, but in most cases it is a good way to bootstrap the configuration process. This option is only available when the server is run as root (i.e, with real-uid 0).
regards
On Saturday 16 January 2016, Thierry de Coulon wrote:
There is on thing however: there is a USB switch between the keyboard and the computer. I'd have to test if this happens on the other computers connected, but I seldom have to use these keys on them because they have special uses (video, backup).
A few days ago I noted, that I have the same problem and I was - at least - able to get AltGr behavior back (without logging out and in) by un-checking the "Enabled Keyboard Layouts" check button.
Now I see that there is something in comon between us both. I also use an external USB switch, to switch keyboard and mouse between a Windows and a Linux system. I use it very seldom, for sure not before the problem happened. But who knows ...
I furthermore mostly don't shut-down my system but put it into the Suspend state. My assumption is that sometimes it does not correctly re-initiate all parts of the system when coming out of Suspend.
Gerhard
On Saturday 16 January 2016 19.08:54 Gerhard Zintel wrote:
Now I see that there is something in comon between us both. I also use an external USB switch, to switch keyboard and mouse between a Windows and a Linux system. I use it very seldom, for sure not before the problem happened. But who knows ...
I furthermore mostly don't shut-down my system but put it into the Suspend state. My assumption is that sometimes it does not correctly re-initiate all parts of the system when coming out of Suspend.
This I don't do, I shut down every evening and usually also during the day. I did no more see the problem since I set the keaboard to 105 keys - but that's too soon to consider it the solution.
Thierry
Just for information:
I've removed the US keyboard setup and now only have the Swiss-French keyboard. Since then I've had no keyboard problem.
So it seems that - maybe linked with the use of a KVM - the problem has something to do with multiple keyboard setup.
For the moment at least this workaround helps.
Thierry
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deloptes -
Gerhard Zintel -
Slávek Banko -
Thierry de Coulon