Many important settings are missed in gnome-control-center

[Norbert]

Dear Ubuntu developers.

The Ubuntu 13.10 release have demonstarted that modern gnome-control-center keyboard have very few settings for keyboard layout related options.

For exmaple, Keyboard Layout Options window is missed in gnome-control-center keyboard (see bug 1245064). The last Ubuntu version which had this window was Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. This window was very useful. It had many options:
It allows to set the following:
> Adding currency signs to certain keys
> Adding Esperanto circumflexes (supersigno)
> Alt/Win key behavior
> Caps Lock key behavior
> Compose key position
> Ctrl key position
> Japanese keyboard options
> Key sequence to kill the X server
> Key(s) to change layout
> Key to choose 3rd level
> Key to choose 5th level
> Miscellaneous compatibility options
> Numeric keypad delete key behavior
> Numeric keypad layout selection
> Use keyboard LED to show alternative layout
> Using space key to input non-breakable space character

Now (in Ubuntu 13.10 and 14.04) these options are missed from gnome-control-center.

GNOME developers say that they moved these options to gnome-tweak-tool. Under Typing section gnome-tweak-tool has options:
> Show all installed input sources
> Key to choose 5th level
> Miscellaneous compatibility options
> Maintain key compatibility with old Solaris keycodes
> Layout of numeric keypad
> Swithing to another layout
> Ctrl key position
> Key sequence to kill the X server
> Numeric keypad delete key behaviour
> Adding currency signs to certain keys
> Caps Lock key behaviour
> Use keyboard LED to show alternative layout
> Japanese keyboard options
> Adding Esperanto supersigned letters
> Alt/Win key behaviour

In next 3 months Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will be released and some users of previous LTS (12.04) may want to update to it. And they will not have many keyboard layout options.

So I recommend to include gnome-tweak-tool to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installation by default. This inclusion may be done by suggestion to install gnome-tweak-tool or by making it as a dependency of gnome-control-center (or something other).

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For other layout switching problems introduced in Ubuntu 13.10 you can see bug 1218322.
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ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: gnome-tweak-tool 3.8.1-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-4.19-generic 3.13.0-rc8
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-4-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.13.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Sun Jan 19 16:34:53 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-20 (90 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release i386 (20131016.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: gnome-tweak-tool
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2013-11-19 (61 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Priority set to 'medium' because the bug is a usability issue that does not limit the functionality of a core application.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

@ Nick Tait:

What is your opinion on this?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

gnome-tweak-tools depends on gnome-shell, that's not a candidate for a default installation on Ubuntu/Unity

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Dependence on gnome-shell is very bad, I understand.

I see that 47 users are affected by missed Keyboard Layout Options window, so this functionality is isefull for them.

What do you think about moving options from Typing section of gnome-tweak-tool to gnome-control-center on Ubuntu side, its fork, or Unity/Ubuntu Control Center?

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

My opinion on this topic is this:

Graphical interfaces shall be designed to let the user decide over the work he's being performing; and to minimize decisions about technical decisions, about how his computer shall behave.

The reason for this is it saves greats amounts of time; while this deep customizability is mainly not intended for making software more flexible, but just pass the user the responsibility of fixing by hand design failures in software and hardware.

On the other hand, I think what meritocracy means is misunderstood by some. Meritocracy is about letting who contributed more to a project decide which scope represents better each individual one from the team; not just only, as seen in https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=711426, saying "we disagree". So there's not feedback with what people needs at all!, although you choose not to follow; what means decisions are based only in how the project coordinator understands the world himself.

For simplifying:
- What people think they need is, most of the time, not exactly what they need.
- But what people don't like is never what they need.
- So what is needed is what is liked by both, developers and users.

[Daniel Fett (fett-ubuntu)]

Just to clarify, you see no need for users to have the option to change the keyboard layout while another button is pressed? I am very used to this feature and I am very annoyed by the decision to remove it. I don't care whether the feature is in the gnome tweak tool, in the default gnome keyboard settings or somewhere else.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I do not know how that can help, but OpenSuSe will pre-install gnome-tweak-tool by default (see https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=855503).

Ubuntu developers can
a) patch gnome-tweak-tool to remove dependence on gnome-shell
b) move options from Typing section of gnome-tweak-tool to gnome-control-center on Ubuntu side, its fork, or Unity/Ubuntu Control Center.

[alon (alon-ben-refael)]

there's something I don't get:
Just downloaded and ran the daily Ubuntu-GNOME release.
Tweak-tool is there and I can disable the keyboard layout changer in the keybord window of the gnome settings and set it in the tweak-tool.
HOWEVER:
this does not actully causes the language change in the system, only the language thingy in the top right hand side (Kill me, but I can't remember it's name...), and the language is still english...

[Chris Hermansen (c-hermansen)]

But really, gnome-tweak-tool does not look right running under Unity, at least not today.

The UI is messed up, shading in the wrong place, etc. I managed to use it to swap CTRL and CAPS LOCK but its visual flaws did not give me confidence in its operation.

Besides, it tweaks a whole bunch of things unrelated to Unity settings (quite reasonable) - so how can this be a solution for setting things in Unity?

[MPinheiro (marielle-pinheiro)]

Hey guys, I've had issues ever since upgrading to 14.04 and someone pointed me in the direction of this bug report. Dunno if anyone can help, but I'm completely stymied and wonder if this bug is the reason for my problem.

Post-upgrade, all of my shortcuts stopped working. All of them. Even default ones that ship with the system, like Ctrl+Alt+T for terminal. Additionally, all of the controls for volume/play/pause/wireless toggle (Fn+F(#)) have also stopped working (with the exception of the brightness toggles Fn+F1/F2, but this only works because I installed it separately!) and the media buttons on my wireless keyboard.

I tried manually adding new shortcuts and this also failed. The keys are being detected, but somehow the link between pressing keys and launching the executable is completely failing. The Super key is the only one that seems to do anything. What the heck happened?

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

MPinheiro, the problem you described in this report if a different one from what is already described in it.

Please, follow instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Reporting_non-crash_hardware_and_desktop_application_bugs to create a new bug report.

Thank you.

[MPinheiro (marielle-pinheiro)]

Hi Alberto,
I tried filing a new bug and it would not go through. I kept on getting an error-- it asked me if the bug that I reported was one of two existing bugs, which is wasn't-- but every time I tried to say it was a new bug it sent me back to the same screen. I also tried filing via apport and it told me that since it was a third-party repository it couldn't be reported.

Apparently there's a bug in the bug reporting system... :/

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

 * To which package have you reported the bug using the "ubuntu-bug" command?
 * Which version of the package have you got installed? (you can check it by browsing through packages using the "Synaptic package manager" application.
 * Which third-party repositories have you got enabled? (you can check it by using the "software and updates" application, and going to the "other software" tab).

[MPinheiro (marielle-pinheiro)]

1) I was trying to report gnome-settings-daemon (version 3.10.2-0ubuntu1~saucy6)
2) I have the gnome3-team ppa enabled, as well as pipelight

[MPinheiro (marielle-pinheiro)]

I should note that I was able to finally report my own bug using a workaround lol

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

The problem you experienced is because the package you're using is provided by a third party repository (the GNOME Team's) and not by the official Ubuntu repositories (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon).

[Karsten W. Rohrbach (byteborg)]

Would it be possible to reintegrate the old advanced settings dialogue?
I mean, this is really a show stopper if you're using Model M keyboards from a decent series that do not have a "Windows" key. On all my systems I have mapped Caps Lock to Super L to access the menus.

[wijit (awijit)]

In Lucid and Precise we can set Key(s) to change layout to Alt+Shift together with Any win key (while pressed) but in Trusty now we can't even if the tweak-tool is installed. Interface is more than a fashion. it's like and very close to a non-verbal language. I'd like to vote to bring the great interface back. Thanks.