keyboard layout switching goes crazy

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt]]

Binary package hint: xorg

After upgrading to maverick I have an annoying problem. I am using four keyboard layouts, usage of three of them are indicated by the scroll lock led. I am using the scroll lock key to switch between them. After some change between the layouts, something goes crazy and it starts to cycle between the layouts very quickly without my intent, the led flashes all the time, and also I can see that pressing the same key generates different character randomly based on the fact which layout was active in that moment. I cannot find a solution to stop this action. The keyboard indicator on the panel shows the primary layout only, not cycling there. I had the idea to start xev, and I see endless printings like this

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886504, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886505, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886562, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886634, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886635, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886694, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886695, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886756, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886811, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x6000001,
    atom 0x174 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 11886812, state PropertyNewValue

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xserver-xorg 1:7.5+6ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-20.29-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-20-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 256.53 Fri Aug 27 21:03:42 PDT 2010
 GCC version: gcc version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu2)
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Sep 12 22:04:25 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04d9:1503 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Shortboard Lefty
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 045e:0039 Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Optical
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:08da Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Messanger
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-20-generic root=UUID=a5601479-5c0c-426e-931b-fe8ab0d82b50 ro splash quiet
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 06/08/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: ASUS A8N-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1005
dmi.board.name: A8N-E
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: 2.XX
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 123456789000
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrASUSA8N-EACPIBIOSRevision1005:bd06/08/2005:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnA8N-E:rvr2.XX:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.35-20-generic

[Rich Wales (richw)]

Is this a duplicate of bug #630347?

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

@RIch: maybe it is (I've commented that bug too now). It seems the problem is triggered after some rapid change on the layout by the scroll lock key (set to switch layout in my config) and/or print screen button to take a screenshot. However I haven't seen it since a while, I will try to reproduce it anyway (recently I didn't need to use my different kbd layouts quite heavily which was the case when I reported the problem though).

[Rich Wales (richw)]

I haven't seen the "crazy switching" problem in a few days either — though this could be because I temporarily reduced my number of keyboard layouts to two and made a couple of other changes to my settings.

I'm much more disturbed by the apparent regression in functionality where the indication of the current keyboard layout (an abbreviation such as "USA" or "Rus" in the icon panel) has been replaced by a little "keyboard" icon that doesn't tell anything about the layout unless you click on it. That's presumably a separate problem, though I haven't been able to find any bug reports about it or been able to track down whose fault it is or where to complain about it.

[divan (ivan-daniluk)]

I've installed Maverick Beta on two machines and has this annoying bug as well. I have three layouts, and after some time the layout indicator start cycling layouts, as described in the top post. The gnome-settings-daemon eats 80-90% CPU. I also noticed CPU usage increase for indicator-application-service, but cannot tell for sure now. But when I kill both this processed and restart gnome-settings-daemon, the things return back to normal state. I tried to run gnome-settings-daemon with --debug and --no-daemon mode, but didn't get any suspicious output when this bug starts.

[Sergey Sedov (serg-sedov)]

I have same problem :/ with two keyboard layouts (U.S. and Russian).

[divan (ivan-daniluk)]

Can someone take a look at this bug or tell which information is needed to clarify it? Cause it a *stopper* bug - you can't work when it occurs, you can't enter any text, event to kill processes from command line.

When it occurs, I see only this repeating message from gnome-settings-daemon(I started it from the console):

gnome-settings-daemon:7314): libappindicator-CRITICAL **: app_indicator_set_label: assertion `IS_APP_INDICATOR (self)' failed

Also, I'm not sure that this is the xserver-xorg-input-evdev bug.

[divan (ivan-daniluk)]

Seems there are a few duplicates of this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/630347
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-application/+bug/633346
and this one for gnome-settings-daemon package:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/629444
Someone said in the comments that this bug occurs only when ''Separate layout for each window" is enabled. I disabled it and wait for a day or two to check if it's correct.