right Alt key disabled on certain laptops

[kwilliam++]

A line in /etc/X11/xorg.conf seems to be mapping the right Alt key incorrectly on certain keyboards.
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
        Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch" <-- This is the bad line.

With it, the right Alt key will not perform as expected: Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, etc, do not work with this key. Commenting out the line solves the problem. I don't know what that line is intended to do - it has something to do with Level 3 but I don't understand that. All I know is that the key wasn't working.

Laptops known to be affected:
Dell Inspiron 6400
Dell Inspiron 630m
IBM T42p

Sources:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=412157
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=287318&page=2

This bug has been around since at least Oct 2006 and affects both Edgy and Feisty beta, and presumably Feisty since I only installed Feisty beta about 2 weeks before the release.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This should have been resolved with bug 76901. Is this a fresh installation of Feisty? Furthermore was the US layout chosen during installation? Thanks in advance.

[kwilliam++ (kwilliam++)]

I'll be darned! Before I posted I did a search for "right alt key" but Bug 76901 didn't show up. (Maybe because it was already resolved?) My sincere apologies. This is then a (3rd?) duplicate of Bug 76901. Guess the fix made it in time for Feisty final then. Hurray! From now on I won't report a bug unless I'm running the very latest packages. (I was holding off until Feisty final to upgrade my packages.)

That was an awesomely quick response, by the way! Thank you.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for console-setup (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]