caps as additional ctrl key just disables caps on g4 powerbook 12"

[Justin de Vesine]

I am using a 12" G4 (PPC) Powerbook, us_en locale, and attempting to remap the Caps Lock key as an additional Control key.
At installation, caps works as expected (toggles capslock on and off, light toggles on and off).
Using gnome-keyboard-properties, Layout Options, Ctrl key position, I set it to "Make CapsLock an additional Ctrl.".
Afterwards, caps lock still toggles the light on and off, but does nothing (and particularly does not act as an additional Ctrl), though the left (and only) Control key still works fine.

Freshly installed Edgy and directly upgraded to Feisty, with:

gnome-control-center 1:2.18.0-0ubuntu3
xorg 1:7.2-0ubuntu10

and various other default packages as of today, 2007-03-31.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: powerpc
Date: Sat Mar 31 20:41:24 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
Uname: Linux dusk 2.6.20-13-powerpc #3 Sat Mar 24 23:52:08 UTC 2007 ppc GNU/Linux

[sam tygier (samtygier)]

confirmed on gutsy with g4 ti powerbook

could this be a limitation of the keyboard?

[Evan Carroll (evancarroll)]

I had no such problem with Gutsy, everything worked fine. With Hardy, the caps-lock key functions as control with said option, but the light still toggles. I'm also not using a mac book, but an x60s lenovo.

[puntium (puntium)]

I commented in bug 196277 as well, but I see the same behavior as EvanCarroll. On a HP xw9300 and ms natural elite keyboard hooked in through USB.

[Ian! D. Allen (idallen)]

confirmed on 8.04.1 hardy with Apple PowerBook G4

Nothing I do with xmodmap will make the CapsLock key act as Control.
I can disable it from acting as CapsLock; I can't enable it as Control.
I have no problem using xmodmap to swap the "alt/option" and "command" keys,
making the "command" key perform as "alt" and vice-versa.

[Paulie Pena (paulie4)]

I do not see how this is a duplicate of bug #196277.

For my setup with a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.04 on an iBook G4, it seems that CapsLock is not working as a modifier because even though I hold the key down, it is sending the KeyRelease event immediately after sending the KeyPress event. So it seems that it is mapping correctly, but perhaps the keyboard driver (or maybe Xorg) is not correctly noticing that the CapsLock is held down. Here's the output from xev; notice the two events have the exact same time values:

KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x3600001,
    root 0x114, subw 0x0, time 41882227, (64,177), root:(80,298),
    state 0x2, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe5, Caps_Lock), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x3600001,
    root 0x114, subw 0x0, time 41882227, (64,177), root:(80,298),
    state 0x2, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe5, Caps_Lock), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

PropertyNotify event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x3600001,
    atom 0x170 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 41882235, state PropertyNewValue

Here's my uname info:
Linux smallfry 2.6.28-6-powerpc #20-Ubuntu Fri Apr 17 08:30:40 UTC 2009 ppc GNU/Linux

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

[Iván Pérez (ivan.perez-keera.es)]

The bug described in #173721 is completely different from the one shown here, and both are marked as duplicates of #196277. Maybe the underlying reason is the same, but the behavior is completely different. I think it should be marked as "not duplicate".

[otakuj462 (otakuj462)]

Found solution here: http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1149092
Works for my PowerBook G4.