German keyboard layout loses tilde dead key

[Cris Dywan]

I'm used to the tilde (~) key being a dead key that can be used to type ñ or Ĩ. This changed with a recent update where it stopped connecting to the next typed character. After considerable effort I found "Deutsch (veraltet)" ie. "German (deprecated)".

There used to be a way to tweak layout settings which also disappeared so there's no way for me to change this behavior.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu50
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-6.23-generic 3.13.0
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-6-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Feb 7 13:34:21 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-07-03 (219 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2013-11-21 (78 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Ulf Mehlig (umehlig)]

I understand that people who do not write texts with "ã", "ñ" etc. rather like to type "~" directly, e.g., in path names or LaTeX source. However, transferring the "~" dead key to a "legacy" keyboard layout (14.04 release) gives the impression that the option to use "~" as an accent will be removed completely in the future -- and that should not happen! It can be a *huge* advantage to be able to type texts in different languages with accents/diacritical letters (e.g., German + Portuguese) with the same keyboard layout.

[Lucas Silva (lmoitinho)]

Hi all,

Just to let you know that this also affected me. German (legacy) solved my problem.

Cheers,
Lucas

[Pablo Celayes (pablocelayes)]

Same problem here. I am argentinean but been using a laptop that I bought in Germany for years.

Fortunately, it was fixed by installing "German (legacy)" layout.

[Pouso-G (pouso-g)]

Still looking for a solution on this.

I'm Xubuntu 14.04 an I know that it was possible to type ñ using AltGr+N before. This would be the easiest way to go.

[marianoju (marianoju)]

+1

"German (legacy)" brings back the dead key function for now, but I agree with umehlig. A possible removal in the future should not happen, and shunting the dead key function to the legacy keyboard layout is not a nice solution.

[Olav Seyfarth (olav-seyfarth-d)]

Changing to legacy layout has some drawbacks, e.g. less assigned symbols. Since I can enter most symbols easily (such as 'ø' and 'ç', as described in https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Sonderzeichen) with the standard keyboard layout I found another solution that works fine for me to be able to type 'ñ', too: remove the key binding for the right "windows" key (if set so, that's the case in cinnamon) and activate the compose key in keyboard options (as described in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey). To type 'ñ', I now type [right windows key](release), [AltGr/right alt]+[+](release, nothing is displayed yet), [n](release, 'ñ' is typed).

[Olav Seyfarth (olav-seyfarth-d)]

A much nicer, general solution would be to be able to select which keys should be dead and which should not - in OPTIONS - instead of having to choose a different layout.

[Olav Seyfarth (olav-seyfarth-d)]

Sorry for posting multiple times. But at least for those searching for a solution, it might be helpful to learn about the different solutions/workarounds:
If you're altogether happy with the default german keyboard layout and just need to be able to type ñ/Ñ, you might consider modifying the german keymap file as described in http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=203076 , George999's post
(you should know know how to use a terminal and sudo, though):
comment out the bindings for key <AB06> (on my system it was line 43) by preceding the line with '#' and add the line
    key <AB06> { [ n, N, ntilde, Ntilde ] };
there. Then delete the precompiled keymaps (rm /var/lib/xkb/*.xkm) and restart the PC (or X). After that, AltGr+n/N types ñ/Ñ. Very intuitive, and I don't miss the characters originally bound to AltGr-n/N.

[Michael (h-ipfo-c)]

With the upgrade to 15.10 the dead key of ~ (and thus the possibility of writing ñ) stopped to work for me.
Switching to german legacy as described here solved the issue for now. But for me it would be extremely annoying if this layout is removed without any sane solution. (editing keymaps is no sane solution)

IMHO ñ should work out of the box as it used to be, I guess there are quite a lot of people who would like to write in spanish/portuguese additionally to their own language.

[Michael Deutorion (punya)]

I am having the same problem. Hopefully the German standard keyboard will have the functionality to produce "ñ" again in future releases. I don't understand why this was removed.

[Michael (h-ipfo-c)]

Same here, German (legacy) solved my problem.

But it's not a nice solution. Imagine having this problem w/o internet connection or w/o knowing some helpful search keywords like 'tilde' or 'dead keys'.
Most of such users will probably not manage to find out that switching to the legacy-layout solves their problem.

[Håkon A. Hjortland (post-hakn)]

After upgrading from Ubuntu 12.04 to 16.04, the dead keys on my keyboard were no longer dead (Norwegian keyboard layout). What fixed it for me was to change
System Settings -> Language Support -> Language -> Keyboard input method system
from none to IBus.

[sanmiguel9 (againsttcpa84)]

I also lost my deadkeys on German(Switzerland) and French(Switzerland) keyboard layouts after upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04.
Setting the keyboard input method to "IBus" (and logout/login?) restored the deadkeys.
"ibus-setup" in a terminal helps as well, but I don't know for how long...

[sanmiguel9 (againsttcpa84)]

I believe bug #1573755 is related to this one and has some more solutions.

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

For anyone affected in 18.04, I have found in "Settings > Language and Region > Input Sources > + > ... > Other" the layout "German (dead tilde)". This fixes my issue, and I wonder if this is the solution previous posters here were hoping for: the default German layout with only the tilde key behaviour modified.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Several years ago the basic German XKB layout was modified in that the dead_tilde symbol was changed to asciitilde (i.e. not dead). They added a German (legacy) layout which changes back asciitilde to dead_tilde. German (legacy) has in 18.04 been name changed to German (deadtilde).

So yes Stéphane, with that name change you no longer get the impression that the layout will disappear soon.

This is not a gnome-control-center issue at all, so closing.