gnome-settings-daemon has problems recognizing the layout switching shortcut

[ryou ezoe]

After the upgrade to Ubuntu 13.10, I notice the iBus(or indicator-keyboard I'm not sure) does not recognize the keyboard shortcut.
After some trying, I find that iBus change the way it recognize the keyboard shortcut in an really strict way.

Suppose, I use Ctrl+Space for keyboard shortcut for iBus.
In order to make iBus recognizing the keyboard shortcut,
I must do following key sequence.

1. Press down Ctrl.
2. Press down Space.
3. Release Space

If, for example, after the step 2, released Ctrl before the release of Space, iBus doesn't recognize the keyboard shortcut regardless of how many seconds you press down both Ctrl and Space.

This change is so inconvenient for me as I have to constantly switching between English and Japanese(Mozc) while typing text.
(Unification of Keyboard Layout and IME is really bad idea, but that's another story.)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Hyung-joon Ahn (bigriot)]

I'm constantly switching between Korean and English as well. I use alt+space ( I have never ever, not even once, been able to get super + space working) and like ryou described, the layout doesn't change unless the said key sequence is followed which for me results in the hud popping up constantly.

[Stepan Roucka (rouckas)]

I am having the same problem in the keyboard layout switching and I can observe also several other problematic keyboard shortcuts that are probably related to this bug. For example the interpretation of Alt and Shift keys depends on the key order. When I press left Alt and then right Alt, it is interpreted as
Alt+Alt R on English (US)
Alt+Level3 Shift on Czech (qwerty)
The right Alt and then left Alt is interpreted as
Alt+Alt L on English (US)
Alt L on Czech (qwerty)

Similarly with my favorite keyboard switching combination left Alt + left Shift, which is interpreted as Alt+Shift L or Shift+Alt L. But these shortcuts don't work at all for keyboard layout switching.

[Stepan Roucka (rouckas)]

Update: after second reboot after system installation, the Alt+Shift keyboard shortcut started working regardless of the keypress order.

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

I have the same problem.

My keyboard combination to switch layouts is Super+space. If I do:

1) Press Super
2) Press Space
3) Release Super
4) Release Space

...the keyboard layout isn't changed, the steps (3) and (4) need to happen in the opposite order for the layout to be changed.

So people typing fast can't use ibus to change layouts.

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

I uninstalled ibus and I still had the problem.
I think the Win+Space shortcut to change layouts is handled by gnome-settings-daemon, so I've put it in the Affects list.

I also think it's a bad idea to have a DE-specific way to change keyboard layouts, because then we'd need to press e.g. Win+Space in Gnome and Alt+Shift in a real console (vt), which is inconsistent...

gnome-settings-daemon should at least respect the xkb shortcut to change keyboard layouts like it used to until now.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Is that still an issue in trusty? The keybindings grabbing is now done in compiz and those issues should be resolved

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

@seb128: it's still an issue in Trusty + gnome-flashback + metacity, which is the default environment for Edubuntu/LTSP (netbooted clients).

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

> (Unification of Keyboard Layout and IME is really bad idea, but that's another story.)

Yes, indeed, I also felt that was a bad choice. Is there a bug ticket already open about this?

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

On 03.04.2014 19:32, Rolf Leggewie wrote:
>> (Unification of Keyboard Layout and IME is really bad idea, but that's another story.)
>>
> Yes, indeed, I also felt that was a bad choice. Is there a bug ticket
> already open about this?

I've taken the liberty to report bug 1302318. Feel free to weigh in there.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Got this problem in Ubuntu 16.04 with GNOME FlashBack session (both Compiz and Metacity).
Set <Alt+Shift>, but it does not switch layouts.