'M' key only works half the time

[Paganini]

Binary package hint: xnest

When using "xnest" to log in remotely via XDMCP the 'm' ('M') key only registers every other press. The only other information I could find about this was on a GENTOO blog (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=225043), which suggests that this is a bug in the source. I'm not a coder though, so I will have to leave it up to others to verify. Whatever it is, it's annoying the crap out of me.

[Peter Hutterer (peter-hutterer)]

> I tried building current xorg-server from git, but Xnest segfaults on startup:
> [...]

I just pushed a couple of fixes to Xnest in master. There's a lot of artefacts
in the cursor rendering code, but it doesn't crash anymore.

[C Michal (michal-physics)]

thanks.

My keysym problem seems to be be fixed here. Any idea if the fix for this is something easy to backport?

[Peter Hutterer (peter-hutterer)]

> --- Comment #2 from Carl Michal <email address hidden> 2008-06-08 22:51:34 PST ---
> My keysym problem seems to be be fixed here. Any idea if the fix for this is
> something easy to backport?

Not sure, I haven't actually looked at the real issue. I have another set of
patches to get rid of the artefacts, but I'll try to look at the keysyms
problem tomorrow.

[Peter Hutterer (peter-hutterer)]

Xnest inits the keyboard map by calling XGetKeyboardMapping. This would query the parent server for the current map. Now since this code is only called when xkb is disabled (but the parent server probably doesn't disable xkb) - could it be that it gets the xkb map for a non-xkb server and that puts it out of sync?
I'm still a bit hazy on that stuff.

(updating version to 7.3, that's what hardy runs)

[C Michal (michal-physics)]

I tried disabling Xkb in the parent server by adding:

Section ServerFlags
     Option XkbDisable
EndSection

to my xorg.conf.

The problem is still there, although its slightly different. Now an m appears only about every 4th press of the m key, event though xev still sees every press (which it interprets as alternating presses and releases).

If I use metacity as a wm inside the Xnest, it does complain that it can't find the XKB extension (regardless of whether its enabled in the parent server).

[Peter Hutterer (peter-hutterer)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 09:57:30AM -0700, <email address hidden> wrote:
> If I use metacity as a wm inside the Xnest, it does complain that it can't find
> the XKB extension (regardless of whether its enabled in the parent server).

start Xnest with "+kb" on the commandline, that should enable xkb.

[C Michal (michal-physics)]

if I add +kb my problem goes away...

for me that's a completely acceptable work around.

In my defense, that option isn't in the man page.

[Peter Hutterer (peter-hutterer)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 09:11:18PM -0700, <email address hidden> wrote:
> In my defense, that option isn't in the man page.

Xnest --help lists ist, there may be other options of interest for you there.

[Peter Hutterer (peter-hutterer)]

commit c42427f63f0e0495e56909ee99ad1e3c4321c39b
Author: Ander Conselvan de Oliveira <email address hidden>
Date: Wed Jul 9 10:50:21 2008 -0300

    Fix incorrect test regarding keyboard map.

    In the map stored in each keyboard device, the first line refers to
    minimum keycode, i.e., the 0th line refers to keycode 8. When not
    using XKB the wrong test caused some keys to be interpreted as
    locks ('m' for instance). The had to be pressed twice to generate
    both KeyPress and KeyRelease events.

    Signed-off-by: Peter Hutterer <email address hidden>

Backport found in server-1.5-branch, closing bug.

[Paganini (nebanks)]

Binary package hint: xnest

When using "xnest" to log in remotely via XDMCP the 'm' ('M') key only registers every other press. The only other information I could find about this was on a GENTOO blog (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=225043), which suggests that this is a bug in the source. I'm not a coder though, so I will have to leave it up to others to verify. Whatever it is, it's annoying the crap out of me.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for your bug report. I've added a link to the upstream bug report, which is now fixed. Would you mind trying this with the latest Intrepid live CD, to see if this is still an issue?

Thanks

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I can confirm that I experience this behaviour on Hardy as well, and that it is fixed in Intrepid.