After Upgrade from Hardy to Intrepid Compose Key No longer Functions Correctly

[airencracken]

Basically the compose key does not function correctly after the upgrade to Intrepid. When holding down the right alt key (which I have set at the compose key) most compose key combinations will not be available. Changes the settings and reseting them does not seem to affect it.
[lspci]
00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge [10de:02f4] (rev a2)
     Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:81cd]
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] [10de:0392] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:c548]

[goto (gotolaunchpad)]

I can confirm this. The key combinations are there, but one must press the added symbols first instead of the usual letter+symbol combination. It's pretty annoying

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

Hi mjhildum,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[airencracken (mjhildum)]

Here is my lspci

[airencracken (mjhildum)]

Here is my xorg.conf though I can't remember making any changes.

[airencracken (mjhildum)]

Here is the xorg.0.log file.

[Dominique Pellé (dominique-pelle)]

Same issue here. I attach `lspc --vvnn` output + /var/log/Xorg.0.log + /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

[Michael White (mikewhite314)]

I have the same issue.

[Michael White (mikewhite314)]

Actually, restarting seems to have fixed it for me.

[airencracken (mjhildum)]

Still affecting me.

[Mike Holland (z-launchpad-myk-id-au)]

Same problem here. Thanks for the workaround (accent first, then letter.)
I don't know why lspci was asked for. Looks like a simple problem with the lookup table, or software that uses it.
compose-e-' fails, when it worked fine pre-intrepid (for the past 15 years, at least!)
compose-'-e gives é.
Definitely a bug!

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Airencracken, you mentioned something about it not affecting your compiz-less Intrepid laptop. Any info on the cause of that?

[airencracken (mjhildum)]

Well, I turned off compiz and enabled metacity on my desktop, but that didn't make any difference in the way the compose key functioned. Was one of the first things I tried actually.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

why this was assigned to gnome-desktop?

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

So it seems that not many people use the compose key, so there won't be enough people to confirm this as a bug. Is this going to cycle into eternity, or has this been noticed?

[Dominique Pellé (dominique-pelle)]

In earlier comments, I mentioned that I was affected by this bug. It turned out that it was because of a specific reason, most certainly different than other submitters. I opened a separate issue (bug #304680) and submitted a patch. In a nutshell, compose key did not work for me (among other things) because locale is broken when using eo_XX.UTF-8 (Esperanto locale). After fixing my locale, my compose key is now working fine in Intrepid (Ubuntu-8.10).

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

I backed those two files up and replaced them with your edits, rebooted for good measure, but nothing was changed. Was there something else I was supposed to do? You seem like you have it pinpointed, so I probably didn't do something right.

[Dominique Pellé (dominique-pelle)]

Chauncellor write:

> I backed those two files up and replaced them with your edits, rebooted
> for good measure, but nothing was changed. Was there something else I
> was supposed to do? You seem like you have it pinpointed, so I probably
> didn't do something right.

I assume you're referring to my comment regarding bug #304680 where
I patched /usr/share/X11/locale/locale.dir and /usr/share/X11/locale/compose.dir.
This is most likely *not* to be root cause of the problem of other people
than me, since it's only relevant if you're using the eo_XX.UTF-8 locale.
IWhich is why you don't observe any improvement after applying the patch.

Which locale are you using? You can find out by entering the 'locale'
command from shell. On my machine (where compose key now works
after tweaking /usr/share/X11/locale/{locale,compose}.dir:

$ locale
LANG=eo_XX.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="eo_XX.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

I've tried fiddling with the layouts for English, but my locale remains the same after applying system-wide. How do I change the locale? Is this a bug specifically for the en_US layout, or just the whole thing in general?

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug seems to be stagnating. I'd be very happy to help fix the bug, but I don't know what to do!

[Ashley Hooper (ash-hooper)]

I am also having problems with the compose key. Unlike others here, I can't type accented characters no matter whether I press the accent first or the letter first.

With Xserver 1.5.2 that is in Intrepid, I had to manually create the xorg.conf file, and I copied my config from my old Hardy xorg.conf, but it doesn't work anymore.

Here is the relevant section from my xorg.conf file - has the syntax changed perhaps?

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver "kbd"
        Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
        Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
        Option "XkbOptions" "compose:lwin"
EndSection

[Alexey Ten (Lynn) (alexeyten)]

Ashley Hooper
You, probably, didn't read release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810#X.Org%20Input%20Devices

[Ashley Hooper (ash-hooper)]

Thanks Lynn. You were right and I hadn't read them. My Compose key now works after following the instructions in the release notes.

[airencracken (mjhildum)]

I hadn't read them either, but that didn't work for me. :/

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

At this rate, this will never be solved. Is there any way we can somehow help/bring more attention to this bug?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

you could try to bring the bug upstream where the people writting the code will read about the issue if there is no bug about that there yet

[jon halle (jonh)]

Same bug here in that compose only works with the modifier typed first. (thanks for posting the workaround but bug needs a fix too)
Intrepid
locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

A fresh install of Jaunty fixed the problem for me.

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Should this bug report be closed? I've had no problem with Jaunty.

[David Jennings (mail-davidjennings)]

Same experience here. The right-menu button (between alt and ctrl on my keyboard) worked as a compose key in hardy. Was broken in intrepid. Worked again in jaunty. So I assume there was an upstream fix.

[jon halle (jonh)]

I confirm that Jaunty works for me, have not tested this exhaustively but I use Compose on a daily basis in a variety of contexts and it works with both modifier typed first and modifier typed last

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Alright. I'm closing this bug. Thanks for the help.