Some keys in keyboard layout show duplicate character labels

[Cesar Urquidez]

* Impact:
The keyboard layout chart shows duplicate characters.
Issue seems to have started on Ubuntu 12.04 and is present in 12.10.

* Steps to reproduce:

1) Select keyboard icon from the launcher at top right of screen
2) Select "Show Layout Chart" menu item

    Keyboard layout is displayed
    the Function keys such as F1 show duplicate characters (i.e. "F1 F1")
    The Numeric pad show duplicate chars for division "/", multiplication "*", subtraction "-", and addition "+"
Expected result:
   Should show only one instance of the character.

* Regression potential:
watch that no symbols are missing on the keyboard map drawing

[James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)]

There seem to be indications that they're removing libgnomekbd from future versions of gnome, so it is likely that we will not have this problem in the future. However, for now (and for purposes of SRU) we can use this patch to fix the problem. I have also escalated this to the gnome bugzilla in the off chance that they either continue to use libgnomekbd or that they decide to merge this patch before pruning the code.

https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2012-August/msg00117.html

[James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)]

This is what the keyboard layout looks like after the patch.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks James, do you know what commit created the issue?

The patch seems a bit hackish and I'm not sure to fully understand the logic ... do you just stop the top_left symbol and then compare the symbol to be displayed to that one? I'm not really familiar with the code but I guess we could start by uploading to raring and see how it goes if it's hard to get an upstream review (could be useful maybe to ping on the upstream bug...)

[James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)]

I think the issue has always been present. What the code does is that it prints a label for each key and then 3 modifiers. The patch won't print the modifiers if they don't change the label. So it compares the unmodified key label (POS_TOPLEFT) to the modifier label and if they are the same it skips the modifiers on the label.

I haven't gotten a response on the upstream bug and I think they are hoping to replace libgnomekbd. I'll post on the bug again and see if I can get a response.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Ok, it seems to work fine, I've uploaded to raring and reformated a bit the bug for the SRU, I'm uploading to precise as well, thanks James!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package libgnomekbd - 3.6.0-0ubuntu2

---------------
libgnomekbd (3.6.0-0ubuntu2) raring; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/02-Remove-redundent-key-label-information.patch:
    - Fix keys that display too much information LP: #1025508
 -- James M Leddy <email address hidden> Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:41:13 -0400

[James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)]

Awesome! Thanks for getting this in.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Cesar, or anyone else affected,

Accepted libgnomekbd into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libgnomekbd/3.4.0.2-1ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[James M. Leddy (jm-leddy)]

Looks right, setting to verification-done.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package libgnomekbd - 3.4.0.2-1ubuntu0.1

---------------
libgnomekbd (3.4.0.2-1ubuntu0.1) precise; urgency=low

  * debian/02-Remove-redundent-key-label-information.patch:
    - Fix keys that display too much information LP: #1025508
 -- James M Leddy <email address hidden> Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:41:13 -0400