Can't set keyboard layout change to alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc.

[Simplehuman]

[Impact]

Can't set keyboard layout change to Ctrl+Shift, Caps Lock, Alt+Shift, etc. Shift, Caps Lock keys are just ignored in settings.

[Test Case]

- open gnome-control-center's text input settings
- click on the "next layout key" entry
- try entering a combination of two modifier keys such as Ctrl+Shift
-> the UI should reflect the new keys

- add at least two input sources through gnome-control-center's text entry
  settings
- press and release Ctrl+Shift
-> the current input source should change

[Regression Potential]

That UI was not working before, it should only be an improvement (some key combos are not working as expected, that's another issue and shouldn't be mixed with this one)

The input switching shortcut might capture other non-modifier shortcuts, but users will need to consider this when choosing their switching shortcut anyways. For users this bug affects, this represents a working solution for a critical bug.

--

Test results for different keyboard layout change hotkeys may be viewed and added in the Google Docs table, created by Norbert (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing).

You can use the tag keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys to find related bugs.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.tag=keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys

For using layout switching hotkeys in Unity Greeter, see bug 1245137.
For using layout switching hotkeys in GNOME lockscreen, see bug 1244548.
For using layout switching hotkeys in GNOME FlashBack sessions, see bug 1687466 (at least <Alt+Shift>).

--

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: indicator-keyboard 0.0.0+13.10.20130829.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-2.5-generic 3.11.0-rc5
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-2-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.12.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Aug 29 14:21:54 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-07-31 (28 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64 (20130730)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=ru_UA:ru
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=ru_UA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: indicator-keyboard
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alex_ander (ks-alexandr)]

confirm this problem, don't work with Alt+Shift too.

[Alexander Kubashin (kubashin-a)]

Can't set keyboard switch to Caps Lock (preferred), alt+shift, ctrl+shift etc. Working combination: ctrl+space and 'menu' (both variants uncomfortably for me).

[suslikk (suslikkreal)]

same bug

[skybon (skybon-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Does not work with Alt+Shift either. This or very similar bug was reported at GNOME bug tracker.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=681685

[Simplehuman (simplehuman)]

Artem Vorotnikov (skybon), it happened right after new indicator-keyboard arrived.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I confirm this bug (Regular Ubuntu 13.10).

[Igor Zubarev (igor.zubarev)]

Confirm for Saucy Beta Final amd64.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

If you set the shortcut via gnome-tweak-tool, layout changing will work (though indicator-keyboard still won't work).

[robi1h (robi1h)]

Confirmed, doesent work me eather Shift+Tab (Ubuntu 13.10 64bit)

[Mike (0x656b694d)]

Setting the shortcut via gnome-tweak-tool has no effect for me.

[Anatoly (anatoly-shipov)]

I confirm this bug, too. Affects most ubuntu users from CIS countries who are used to Alt+Shift|Ctrl+Shift layout switching. Any workaround?

[loquens (loquens)]

At first for me worked this advise: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-keyboard/+bug/1215826/comments/14#ubuntu

But later it stopped working, and now I am only able to switch layout via modified+symbol key (I use ctrl-space now, but it's not comfortable, as it interferes with app's shortcuts) :(

[peerus (tsifra)]

Also had problem with alt-shift combinations set via region and language settings. Solved it by: gnome-tweak-tool -> typing -> key(s) to change layout -> disable

[Nick Ocheredko (nick-ocheredko)]

Confirm this bug - the only available combination is Super+Space which cannot be changed. The workaround via gnome-tweak-tool does not work at all.

[Alex_ander (ks-alexandr)]

Confirm, still no work, my favorite combination is Ctrl+Shift don't work on a Unity 7 (ubuntu-desktop).

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Actually this is maybe an issue in gnome-settings-daemon, which doesn't update org.gnome.desktop.input-sources/current key when shortcuts are pressed.

[peerus (tsifra)]

Have just checked left ctrl + left shift and it works again. My problem with layout switching was directly related with "key(s) to change layout -> disable". Maybe you should try logout & relogin.

My system: fresh install of ubuntu gnome 13.04 -> upgrade via "update-manager -d" to 13.10 beta.

[peerus (tsifra)]

How i've troubleshoot my problem. After upgrade from 13.04 to 13.10 i've noticed that if i press super + space layoyt indicator changes so does input. En-Ru-En.

If i press alt-shift only indicator changes. but If i try to enter text it's still english. after "key(s) to change layout -> disable" alt-shift doen't make sense only super-space works. then i changed super-space to alt-shift in regional and language settings and it works like expected.

[Tolchi (sehoon-park)]

most of koreans favorite key combination to change korean-english is shift+space

this combination is no longer avaliable...

[peerus (tsifra)]

I feel like another my problem is related somehow with this bug. Please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1235586 and leave your comments there if you can reproduce described situation.

[N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux)]

You can try gnome-tweak-tool.
I can change the keyboard layout from English to Greek with [Alt+Shift] but the icon indicator (up right) remains as is [En].

[Jacob Popov (j-a-popov)]

I confirm the bug with the current Saucy.
Using gnome-tweak-tool makes the keyboard switched using XKB, which isn't quite good. Currently Ubuntu relies on iBus, if i'm not mistaken? Therefore the gnome-tweak-tool workaround is not OK, as the indicator doesn't notice any layout changes then.

Which is more, after the yesterday's update I cannot change the layout even with Super+Space any more! No reasonable working hotkey left! So far I'm sticking to Shift+Alt and ignore the indicator.

By the way, why using the indicator which doesn't work?
1) Layout switching in the command-line interface is done ONLY with XKB! We should somehow keep the layout changing hotkeys in XKB similar to the ones used in GUI, shouldn't we?
2) For now, XKB works fine, while the indicator fails. Maybe the indicator should rely on XKB, or at least track the layout change in XKB?

[Jacob Popov (j-a-popov)]

peerus, that's quite different bug. Although it's annoying as well, it's reason lurks somewhere else. The patches from that thread seem to do nothing with this bug.

[Maxim Kuznetsov (mackuzzz)]

In 13.04 there is ability to change layout while button is pressed. I'm using Caps key. And in 13.10 i can't find any place to make these changes.

[Stixy90 (sasha-govrin)]

In 13.04 there is ability to change layout while button is pressed. I'm using Ctrl+Shift key. And in 13.10 i can't find any place to make these changes.

[Ivan Kukobko (ivan-kukobko)]

"Text Entry" config recognizes my "Super" (Windows) key as "Mod4+Super+Hyper". Any idea how can I fix it?

[VoaNerges (gotham48)]

Hey, guys, can someone run dconf-editor find org -> gnome -> desktop -> input-sources and change xkb-options to ['grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll'] and then switch layout by Alt-Shift? Just to test.

This helped me.

[shkiper325 (shkiper325-deactivatedaccount)]

Yup, fixing config in dconf-editor helped for me.
But En/Ru indicator didn't change.

2013/10/11 VoaNerges <email address hidden>

> Hey, guys, can someone run dconf-editor find org -> gnome -> desktop ->
> input-sources and change xkb-options to
> ['grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll'] and then switch layout by Alt-
> Shift? Just to test.
>
> This helped me.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322
>
> Title:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to ctrl+shift
>
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in “indicator-keyboard” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to ctrl+shift, Caps Lock, alt+shift
> etc. "Shift", "CapsLock" keys are just ignored in settings. Also the
> default shortcut was set to "Super+Space" that is inconveniently,
> because Dash is opening when you swich your keyboard layout.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
> Package: indicator-keyboard 0.0.0+13.10.20130829.1-0ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-2.5-generic 3.11.0-rc5
> Uname: Linux 3.11.0-2-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
> ApportVersion: 2.12.1-0ubuntu2
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Thu Aug 29 14:21:54 2013
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-07-31 (28 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64
> (20130730)
> MarkForUpload: True
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=ru_UA:ru
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
> LANG=ru_UA.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: indicator-keyboard
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1218322/+subscriptions
>

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I confirm this bug on Ubuntu 13.10, unable to change layout with Ctrl+Shift or Alt+Shift (set in Gnome Control Center -> Keyboard -> Layouts).

[loquens (loquens)]

VoaNerges (gotham48), yes, setting toggle key via dconf-editor worked for me, but language icon is not changing upon switch

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

I've upgraded from previous versions where I had Alt+Shift as the shortcut toggling between English and Hungarian. Now, not being to specify this, I chose Ctrl+Space. The current behavior is:
- If I select English in the indicator or via Ctrl+Space then the layout is English, and Alt+Shift does nothing.
- If I select Hungarian in the indicator or via Ctrl+Space then the layout is initially Hungarian but Alt+Shift toggles between En and Hu, but without updating the indicator.
Total chaos.

In Text Entry Settings, if I press the Windows key plus Space, I get "Mod4+Super+Hyper+Space" displayed -- what the heck??? Mod4 and Hyper, what the hell are those, and why aren't they shown on the Keyboard Layout Chart, and why does the dialog claim I pressed them? And how do I revert to the previous value which was simply Super+Space?

Moreover, Ctrl+Space (my currently specified shortcut) only works if I press Ctrl, press Space, release Space and finally release Ctrl in this order. If I release the two keys in reverse order (which is way more natural for me as my hand quickly rolls over the two keys, rather than stopping and moving backwards) then it doesn't work. Yet again a total usability failure.

This whole thing is a complete disaster :(

[Theodore Zahov (tzahov)]

I confirm the bug. Currently trying to make a fresh install of 13.10 latest beta or daily, but both are buggy. "Alt-shift" is gone and even "Super+space" does not work. Instead I get "Mod4+Super+Hyper+space" crazy combination. Extremely annoying and makes the distro unusable for me.

[Raven (doom-raven)]

I confirm this bug on Ubuntu 13.10 х64

[Igor Zubarev (igor.zubarev)]

Still can't set keyboard layout change to ctrl+shift, Caps Lock, alt+shift etc.

[suslikk (suslikkreal)]

I'm very sad :(

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

Confirmed under Ubuntu Saucy (of today, through the daily iso images).

[Pilot6 (hanipouspilot)]

I upgraded from 13.04. Old layout switch by Alt+Shift works, but there is no way to change it or turn off. Even in dconf.
New switch is unusable.

[Ergys Dona (ergysdo)]

Confirmed by me too.

This is one of the simple things that are essential to most of the people. Instead of taking the time to make a distribution usable and then adding the candy, the focus seems to be on the candy and the core features are not given the appropriate attention.

This bug is disastrous. Reported about 1,5 month ago. Just one day before the release and no fix yet. I respect Ubuntu and use it for every day work, but these things indicate how Canonical has gotten way of the good road it used to be on and Ubuntu is having major issues. It's a pity and absolutely embarassing.

[Nicholas Shatokhin (robotex)]

I confirm it. I have three layouts and can't swith them even if I click layout in indicator by mouse pointer (it switching at indicator, but I continue typing in latin).

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, thank you for your input and comments. I have attempted to resolve this by patching gnome-settings-daemon and gnome-control-center. Could you please add this PPA to your list of sources, and report within this bug report any outstanding issues that you still encounter?

PPA: https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/1218322

The versions are gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu9ppa1) and gnome-control-center (1:3.6.3-0ubuntu44ppa1). I will keep the PPA up-to-date until a correct fix is released.

Please note that Caps Lock does not currently work as an input switching shortcut. This is still an outstanding issue.

[Dex (dex-stb)]

Hi William.

I was able to set Shift+Ctrl and Ctrl+Alt combinations and they work.
However, when I try to set Shift+Alt combination it is set as "Shift+Alt+Meta L" and it won't work.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Hi William,

I've installed your updates, and logged out and in just to be sure. Here's what I get (continuing comment 35):

The order in which I release the keys still matters. This makes it pretty much unusable for me, since the combo I'm used to (rolling my hand from right to left: press Alt, press Shift, release Alt release Shift) does not work anymore. The behavior of key combos is always to act on keypress, e.g. Ctrl+Space should switch the layout as soon as I press the space (and update the indicator too), and the order in which I release should not matter. Same goes for modifier-only key combos. The order in which the modifiers are pressed shouldn't matter either.

As far as I know, the old version relied on XKB groups, i.e. X Window was configured to execute the keymap change internally, independently of the desktop environment. The applet just provided a feedback of X's internal state, and a method to change that. I really don't know anything about the new system, but I seem to get a weird (and problematic) behavior of these two methods conflicting. As I've mentioned, I've upgraded from previous versions so I probably have tons of leftover of my old preference everywhere (both personal gnome config, and system-wide X config). (My old config is: having us and hu layouts, and Alt+Shift as toggle. Neither the press order, nor the release order of these two keys mattered previously.)

When I hit Alt+Shift as the new hotkey in Text Entry Settings, I get "Shift+Alt+Next Group" displayed as the hotkey. This clearly shows that the Alt+Shift toggle of XKB groups is still in effect. If I choose English in the menu, no shortcut changes layout. If I choose Hungarian, the Alt+Shift combo (in any of the 4 ways of pressing/releases) switches layout without updating the indicator. Exactly as when I specify a different shortcut in Gnome which I don't press at all. This is a clear indication that an Xkb group change happens, unaware to gnome / indicator-kbd.

I executed >> setxkbmap us,hu -option '' << from the terminal to clear the XKB switching shortcut. Now, if I specify the desired shortcut in Text Entry, I see "Alt+Shift L" which looks way more promising. From this moment, only 1 of the 4 possible press/release orders work: press Alt, pres Shift, release Shift, release Alt. (Again: such behavior is unusable for me.) When pressing this combo, the layout changes and it's reflected in the indicator. It's a clear sign that this event was handled by Gnome, and not Xkb. But: when pressing this combo for the first time, everything gets reverted to the previous behavior. Alt+Shift is resurrected as an Xkb group switcher (any 4 orders toggle the layout, but only if the indicator shows Hu, not when on En; and the modification is not reflected. Specifying Alt+Shift as the shortcut again displays "Shift+Alt+Next Group".) I'm not sure where the old Xkb setting is resurrected from.

Summary:

- Previously Gnome relied on Xkb groups, something I was familiar with. (About 8-10 years ago it was finally a great solution, compared to executing xmodmap all the time. It was nice to see how X implemented support, and Gnome/Kde migrated to usi...

[discont (discont)]

Does not work for me.

Recognize Ctrl-Shift (and Shift-Ctrl as different combinations), but indicator does not change and layout does not switch.

[Ivan Koptiev (ivan.koptiev)]

Some for me. I was able to set Crtl-Shift, but it does nothing.

[IC Raibow (icrbow)]

Amazing how such a high-impact bug passed to release... ):

I've "fixed" and got my CAPS back by uninstalling indicator-keyboard and adding "setxkbmap -layout us,ru -option grp:caps_toggle,compose:menu" to startup applications.

Musings with dconf (and new GUI itself) were unproductive.

[ssy (somsaks)]

Same for me, I was able to use alt-shift but it does nothing, too.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, there seems to be an unrelated issue at work, can you please 'killall unity-panel-service' before testing the PPA? Thanks.

[Žygimantas Beručka (zygis)]

Ladies and gentelmen, this is a farce. What age are we living in? For at least three releases they didn't care about GNOME lacking the keyboard indicator because of how they mixed up wrong versions of GNOME and IBus packages. It took 1.5-2 years to get this fixed. Thanks! Alas the rocket scientists at Ubuntu finally shot themselves in the foot. Again.

I upgraded my Ubuntu GNOME Remix to 13.10 few weeks ago and in GNOME this strange Super+Space combo *works*: both the actual layout and the indicator is changed. (But why on earth is this combo enforced as a default? I didn't ask for it: for the last decade I've been switching layouts with Shift+Shift and would be glad to continue with it as is. Well, at least something works for now.)

However, I just upgraded another laptop which runs Unity. And there even the Super+Space combo doesn't work. Only the dash gets opened, which means there is no way to change the layout.

[Pilot6 (hanipouspilot)]

Super+ Space is like OSX. That's the reason.

William,

killall unity-panel-service

does not change anything

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Žygimantas and Pilot6, is it an issue with the key binding not working due to what Egmont was describing? Or does pressing the key binding slowly still not work?

[Pilot6 (hanipouspilot)]

I can set Ctrl+Shift in 'Text Entry', but it does not switch anything.
If I set Ctrl+Space (e.g.) it does work. But works badly.
Badly means that I need to take care of which key is released first.
And also if I switch 10 or 20 times fastly, system hangs for a while.

Unusable. Good that old xkb way still works but does not affect indicator.

Anf if I use xkb way, key combinations like Ctrl+Alt+T do not work, if layout is not English.

[Baekkevold (baekkevold)]

I'll add my experience.
Starting point: setting keyboard shortcuts did nothing, pressing alt+shift always reverted to what was already there
Messing with dconf did not help -> result: caused some weird key combos when trying to set the keyboard shortcuts. no key combos actually worked.
(note: did not remove the dconf settings before proceeding)
Added the ppa and upgraded -> same result, could input weird key combos, but none actually worked.
Removed the dconf (and rebooted): could now change keyboard shortcuts to some sensible keys, ie alt+shift L. This actually worked as well! Both the icon changes, and the layout is changed.

In short, upgrading with the new ppa fixed the problem, as long as the dconf was not messed with.

For the record; this is on a virtual box vm.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Baekkevold: Could you please tell me whether the press and the release order of the keys matter for you? If not (i.e. if the four possible press/release sequences all change the layout) then I'll try find and clean up those dconf settings.

[vladk (vladkonan)]

confirm this bug still exists, in released version. very diappointing..
after adding ppa i can set ctrl-shift hotkey, but switching layout works very very inconveniently. i should do it very slowly - press ctrl, wait, press shift. this is very stupid, if I press fast ctrl+shift - it never works

[Alexey (alexeyza)]

Confirmed for released version of 13.10.
I would prefer not to mess around with dconf if possible.

[Andrey Kamozin (andreykamozin)]

I join. It's already released, but bug is not solved, still using shift+f1, that's not very nice

[Procion (klebed)]

This affects me too. still...

I just wonder, HOW this unstable buggy thing was got to release? Bugs about that was revealed 2-3 months ago, so there was enough time to fix, or remove it. This issue deals with main UX, it makes whole OS totally uncomfortable for desktop users.
Community waiting for somebody to pay maximum attention to this issue.

[Felipe Castillo (fcastillo.ec)]

This is so annoying!!! Besides not being able to set up my own set of keys (pressing both shifts keys) the default Super+Space doesn't work at all. I'm trying different combinations but many are not accepted and only horrible ones I can select.
I can't believe Canonical didn't realize that this was an important bug and that it should have been fixed months ago. How hard could it be? Why change something if it wasn't broken!!!

[suslikk (suslikkreal)]

In Russian layout dont work hot keys

[Lockal (lockal)]

Temporary workaround: install and use gnome 3.10 as described at http://www.webupd8.org/2013/09/how-to-install-gnome-310-in-ubuntu-1310.html . Gnome 3.10 is not very stable too, but at least it allows to switch keyboard layout with ctrl+shift. And it's new GUI (a.k.a client-side-decorations) is cool. maybe you won't need Unity anymore.

Not sure about other Desktop Environments, maybe KDE or XFCE are not affected by this problem too.

[eldad (eldad-a)]

(1)
I found that in dconf-editor
-> desktop -> ibus -> general -> hotkey
both next-engine & next-engine-in-menu are set by default to 'Alt+Shift_L'
I do not know whether this is related or not.

(2)
Switching the language indicator (using the mouse) to my other language (Hebrew) allows me to switch between hebrew and english using Alt+Shift (defined in dconf: org -> gnome -> desktop - > input-sources -> xkb-options ['grp:alt_shift_toggle']
Unfortunately, I have to do this for each window separately, that is, if the indicator shows "En", I will not be able to switch language using the Alt+Shift.

(3)
I agree with the previous post - I do not see the point in this change from previous behaviour. The system is less usable than before (unless I am missing something). I wish to have simple way to choose the shortkey for language switching and that the indicator would follow.

[Anton Uspenskiy (psychaos303)]

Actually, when you select Text Entry Settings... you see Super + Space by default, i add Russian language and click in this field to change keys to Ctrl+Shift, but you don't see changes after this, keys still Super + Space. But change layout work with Ctrl+Shift, to test it open any text editor and try write something you see that change layout work, but icon on panel Ru-En don't change when you switch layout.

[ssy (somsaks)]

- Super-Space is NOT working at all. This is quite a surprise. Changing key is one thing, but default key isn't working is so simple a bug that shouldn't be let out to the wild.

- I'm using En-Th layout which previously use Alt-Shift as layout switcher.
    - After PPA update, I could set the Alt-Shift-Next-group as hotkey but it's not working.
   - Ctrl-shift works for me for both layout. Anyway it overrides with Terminal hotkey Ctrl-Shift-T so I opt not to use it.
   - If I switch th Th layout, the alt-shift back to work again (despite the fact that I set the layout switch hotkey to F9, weird?), but the indicator still on Th although I am typing in En.

[ssy (somsaks)]

One more thing, the dash hotkey Super-<numeric> stop working if I switch to Th. I have to switch back to En to make it works again.

Removing indicator-keyboard make everything works again except all other hotkey (Minimize, Maximize, everything) gone.

[Alexey Surinov (mussgrinn)]

Have the same problem after upgrade, but it has accepted "Ctrl+Space" combination for me, that is working acceptably. Hope you'll find this decision suitable as temporary one.

[Dimitris (dimitris-mamalis)]

Updating with the PPA works for me to but you really need to go sow with the key compination which makes it kind of a temporary workaround and not a real solution.
Keep up the good work!

[Roman (niflheimr)]

Confirm under Saucy. Have both en and ru layouts, after changing the layouts via mouse the alt+shift combination started working, though the keyboard icon in tray don't change.

[Peter Chervenski (spookey)]

Super+Space works for me (but not every time), and I can't set my default Ctrl+Shift keys for switching between layouts. Instead it becomes disabled, like it didn't recognize the keys. I use 13.10 (upgraded from 13.04).

[zion5un (angaranin)]

Fixed for me by deleting "DCONF Editor" using Ubuntu Software Center

[aestam (a-e-stamatiadis)]

I too can confirm this very annoying bug/problem.

I tried to use the method suggested by William Hua ( #44) (addtional ppa) and in general it works but not as good as I would like; let me explain:
1) In the 'Text Entry' window for 'Switch to next source susing:' I used the 'Shift+Alt' combination and for 'Switch to previous source using:' the 'Shift+Control' combination. These are displayed as 'Shift+Alt+Next Group' and 'Shift+Control L'
2) The first combination ('Shift+Alt') does work and changes the keyboard in cyclical manner as expected (English (US) -> Greek -> English (US), etc., since I have two input sources in use the 'English (US)' and 'Greek'. The second combination seemigly does nothing.
3) In order for the above to work the 'Use the same source for all windows' must be selected.
4) The keyboar indicator does not show the change even when the keyboard is changed.

As for the other suggestion about using the gnome tweek tool there must be another bug because it is not possible to run it in my system: it starts without a problem but after a second or two it closes without warning.

[Roman (niflheimr)]

In addition to comment #71, there is an error in login screen after blocking the system with ctrl+alt+l - sometimes there is no language indicator/

[Navid (yaa110)]

Dear @William Hua:
Thanks for your new biuld file, but I still have problem with 'Shift + Alt R' even after installing new updates:
UPDATE-1: https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/1218322/+build/5113461
UPDATE-2: https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/1218322/+build/5112204
Moreover, it is impossible to change shortuts from 'Keyboard Settings' and the fixes only were applied on 'Text Entry Settings'

[Baekkevold (baekkevold)]

Egmont: All keys work for me with the update. alt+shift, ctrl+super, ctrl+shift etc (I dont wanna test every single combo). I notice however, that it takes a couple of tries to get the key set. Often it is set to Num Lock for some reason (I do not have the dconf change), but after 2-3 tries it sets properly and works as expected.

[Roman Shchekin (mrqtros)]

Affects me too. Guys, please, try to check it fast, because I can't work on my PC now.
ctrl+space works, but only if I'll hit this buttons very slowly, about 1sec. Quick hit on them together (always switching my layout fast) doesn't affect.

[diabloneo (diabloneo)]

I have the same problem in release version. Currently, I set short-cut to 'ALT-i' to switch between input methods. And another problem is I can not set 'ALT' as a short-cut to activate HUD, so I have to set it to 'ALT-l (it's L)'.

[Apm (apm-q)]

13.10 released but still this problem..

[Pavel Vorobiov (pavel-vorobiov)]

Guys please fix it. I can pay for it if you want. :)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

That bug has a lot of activity, it seems to list different issues though:

- default keybinding not working properly for some users?

- UI to change the keybinding not working

- some key combinations not being possible (e.g shift-shift)

What's the most important issues for users commenting on this bug? Would have a default set to "ctrl-alt" and be working solve most of the issue, or is the problem really the ability to be set the action to some other keys?

[gblive (gblive)]

I run awesome wm via gnome-session - keyboard switching does not work at all

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

@Sebastien: I can only share my opinion here, but maybe it's not uncommon.

I've been regularly (=sometimes multiple times per minute) using Alt+Shift as the switcher for more than a decade, I'm so used to it that I'm not even willing to try to change this habit. Any attempt in getting used to a new one would cause a huge loss of productivity, and big frustration. Call me old-fashioned, I spent quite some time getting used to Dvorak, and later to Colemak, but gave up all. I'm already used to something and I don't see why I would need to change. Forcing any change would be like forcing me to swap Y-Z after ~15 years of touch typing. I'd scream and uninstall Ubuntu for good.

So: please let everyone continue to use their favorite shortcut keys, whatever they've been using previously! Otherwise it's a giant usability regression.

Also, the press order of modifiers, and the release order of any keys (modifiers and normal keys) should not matter. Alt+Shift should mean press Alt and Shift together in any order, then release them in any order. Maaaaybeee forcing a particular press order is acceptable if it absolutely necessary (that's what happens with modifier+letter combos anyway), but depending on the release order is not.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Egmont: thanks for the reply, just one comment

> So: please let everyone continue to use their favorite shortcut keys, whatever they've been using previously! Otherwise it's a giant usability regression.

We don't plan to limit choices, I'm just trying to figure out what's the most important issue to get fixed there/if we need to try to roll out a workaround (and which one) while the bug is being worked

[Pavel Vorobiov (pavel-vorobiov)]

> So: please let everyone continue to use their favorite shortcut keys, whatever they've been using previously!
I thick it's the first thing that you should return.
Sorry for English. Thanks.

[Alexandr (ozornick-ks)]

All work...

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Saucy final release.

[vladk (vladkonan)]

> ctrl+space works, but only if I'll hit this buttons very slowly, about 1sec. Quick hit on them together (always switching my layout fast) doesn't affect.

for me this is most annoying issue, this slows down typing a lot.

[Juan Carlos (arareka-ha)]

Here still with this bug ... fully update final Saucy release...

[asavah (irherder)]

Big thanks, devs, for crippling this feature.
You guys managed to kill something that should be working flawlessly out-of-the-box.
May be it is the time to stop rushing after Mark's astronautical goals and think about fellow users.
This bug is a no go for me.

[discont (discont)]

@Sebastien:

I can't set Ctrl-Shift, Alt-Shift and my favorite Caps Lock to change layout. Moreover, default Super + Space does not work at all.
The best option would be if the old functionality returns back. In my case, I need to have ability to set Caps Lock to change layout.

[discont (discont)]

@Sebastien:

If we speak about temporary workaround, please, get ability to set at least something that will switch the keyboard layout.

[Vladimir (gkdemaster)]

High? Seriously? It bug critical!

[demon101 (demon10101)]

same bug on fresh ubuntu 13.10
And all shortcut in intellij idea 12 broken

[Paschalis Antoniou (don-pasquale)]

not only is it impossible to choose alt+shift as a "change layout" combination, but:

it's also impossible to choose the right alt, (the "Alt Gr" key) to "change layouts while keypress"

[Vitali Kulikou (sabotatore)]

I need a shift_caps_switch behavior.

[Mikola (panamik)]

I am not sure if people who will be fixing this issue are reading all the comments, but if you do:
please, please, please, make sure it is possible to loop through keyboard layouts using the same key combination (e.g. Left Alt+Shift).

Looking at the 13.10 Text Entry settings dialog, I can see two *different* keyboard shortcuts "Switch to next source" and "Switch to previous source". Please make sure that if I "switch to next source" when the current source is the last in the list - I loop back to the first "source".

Thank you! :)

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, I've updated the PPA to improve the issue of fast switching alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc. While there are still issues (double-shift/alt/ctrl does not work in particular), hopefully the PPA can work as an interim solution until we can push out a correct fix. Please continue to report issues you're running into here, and very sorry about the inconvenience.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

This new great languge indicator looks almost exactly as the old one. However, Super + space (default) does not work for me OR changing the key combination. Super + space opens the left menu.

Wiz posted workaround it is then.

[Alexander Ruliov (rulix-exec)]

This is very strange. In my indicator-keyboard "switch to next source" is set to "Shift-Backspace". But sometimes, Caps Lock works (and Shift-Backspace also too). But when I change language with Caps Lock, indicator is not changing icon to new language.

[Assaf Shachar (asaf60)]

It is strange indeed. In the unlock computer password screen (after sleep) the old Alt+Shift that I used to change layouts is strangly working. On the other hand the super+space does not work at all. The super key in Ubuntu does lots of thinks already (opening dash opening help menu HUD ) I mean what do you expect?

[asmodey (pavel-finkelshtein)]

Shift+Caps still doesn't work for me after updating ppa.
Also there are some conflicts between gnome-tweak tool (dconf, I think) and new indicator.

[vladk (vladkonan)]

@William Hua
with ppa ctrl-shift and fast layout switching works for me

[Alexander Poddubny (poddubny)]

@William Hua

Ctrl-Shift is working with ppa, thanks. However, I'd also like the option for cyclic changing of the layouts :
Russian -> Ctrl-Shift -> English -> Ctrl-Shift -> Russian

Now I can change only one way, Russian->English by pressing Ctrl-Shift, but not back. Cyclic behaviour for 2 layouts was stadrad for all systems I've ever used, and I would appreciate it back.

[Vadim Lopatyuk (qnub)]

In 13.04 i've set keyboard switching to single CapsLock trough /etc/default/keyboard and it still working after upgrade to 13.10 but layout indicator isn't change on layout switch, and layour reset to default on compiz desktop scrolling.

[vladk (vladkonan)]

@Alexander Poddubny
> Now I can change only one way, Russian->English by pressing Ctrl-Shift, but not back.

strange, in my system layout switching with ppa works cyclically

[lubart (slava-ua)]

@William Hua

I can set Ctrl+Space after install ppa but my favorite Ctrl+Shift still does not available for me ;(
When I set this combination under Unity I obtained Ctrl+Shift+Next Group. Can me explain anyone what is Next Group because normal Ctrl+Shift does not work?
Under Gnome 3 I can not set Ctrl+Shift at all.

But thanks in any case because I can set Ctrl+Space at least.

[Franko Burolo (fburolo)]

Just installed Saucy, and I am confirming this is an issue for me, too. I managed to set it to ctr+alt+space, which seems to be the least bad option for me... I was always using alt+caps.

It looks like it forces you to take an alpha-numeric key for the shortcut, which is unpractical for obvious reasons. So we are forced to use space there, which is the only really universal cross-layout alphanumeric key.

It is a serious regression. Especially for us language and literature students and professionals.

[ssy (somsaks)]

The lastest update from PPA fix the following things for me (Note: I'm using En+Th layout).

* Now I can use Super+Shift. It's not as easy as alt-shift but still ok.
* Alt-shift is still not working. Just notice that it captured "Shift-Alt-Next Group not Shift-AltL"
* Any combination, either Super-ShiftL, or ShiftL-Super, works. Dash menu didn't brought up so I think detection speed is fine.
* Indicator switch as it should.

Still, the Super+<Number> hot key stop working. It used to work in 13.04. Right now I have to switch back to En layout before Super+<Number> works.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, for all those who are experiencing the "Next Group" bug, could you please let me know what your hardware keyboard is, and what layouts you're using day-to-day? Thanks!

[Andrey T (tandrey-office)]

Can't use my favourite Alt+Shift combo... have to use Ctrl+Space instead... it just pissing me off. En <=> Ru my only layouts.

[lubart (slava-ua)]

@William Hua

I'm using HP Probook 4520s and my layouts are English, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish.

Have a hope that this info will help you!!!

[Andrey T (tandrey-office)]

Don't know If this makes sense, but I'm using A4Tech KV-300H keyboard.

[Yannis (orions-belts1)]

ProBook 6360b here with (en,gr), also noticed that gnome-tweak-tool segfaults if you press the combination that alters the layout set within .. (e.g If you have set Alt+Shift and press Alt+Shift).

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

My hardware layout is Hungarian (I'm not sure why it's interesting). The software layouts I've always been toggling between are "us" and "hu 101_qwerty_dot_dead", using "grp:alt_shift_toggle" as the hotkey.

Recursively grepping for "101_qwerty" in my home finds two files: ./.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/%gconf.xml (which I attach) and ./.config/dconf/user (blob; if you tell me which command extracts the relevant data in text format then I'm happy to attach it).

[Ofir p (hatkyinc)]

Same issue he-en layouts laptop keyboard lenovo z570. (can do ctrl+shift. alt+shift put the +next group)

[[e-mail] (alternativshik-t)]

Logitech K360 keyboard, en+ru layouts. usually I used CapsLock, but now... ctrl+space

[Pavlo Bohmat (bohm)]

A4Tech KLS-5 keyboard
setxkbmap "us,ru,ua" ",winkeys,winkeys" "grp:menu_toggle,grp_led:scroll,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp,compose:ralt"

Pls, fix it!

[V (tkvv-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Having the same issue. I've upgraded from 13.04 where I had alt+shift toggling between En and Ru and belarusian as system language. Current behavior is:
1. I can change layouts between En and Be via alt+shift without updating the indicator (but i can see current layout on lock screen).
2. I can change layouts between En and Ru via ctrl+space, but hotkeys on russian layout doesn't work.

[sugree (sugree)]

Regarding Alt+Shift+Next Group, my laptop is Thinkpad x220 with English (US) and Thai layout.

[Ravil (sh0ckfile)]

I don't understand how come this bug was affecting multiple users even in beta version (in _August_, for the Lord sake!), and still no solution was present and release was launched? I think this is an example of very poor management.

[Artem Popov (artfwo)]

On a clean Saucy install (Russian layout selected during setup) with the attente PPA, I have the same behaviour as Valery Kozlov described in comment #122. No matter if the switch hotkeys are enabled or disabled in the GUI, I can still switch layouts with ALT+SHIFT.

Strangely, this layout configuration comes from "keyboard-configuration" package. This is the setxkbmap output on a clean system:

~$ setxkbmap -print -verbose
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes: evdev+aliases(qwerty)
types: complete
compat: complete+ledscroll(group_lock)
symbols: pc+ru+us:2+inet(evdev)+group(alt_shift_toggle)
geometry: pc(pc105)
xkb_keymap {
 xkb_keycodes { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
 xkb_types { include "complete" };
 xkb_compat { include "complete+ledscroll(group_lock)" };
 xkb_symbols { include "pc+ru+us:2+inet(evdev)+group(alt_shift_toggle)"};
 xkb_geometry { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

Running 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration' affects the setxkbmap output later, so the console keyboard config clearly makes its way into X (conflicting with the ibus configuration).

[jadi (jadijadi)]

still having this problem. Dell Vostro & Updated 13.10 & US(Colemak)+Fa layouts
This bug also exists in other distros with the latest gnome (say Fedora 19) so it might come from Gnome side.
switched to KDE till this is fixed.

[ssy (somsaks)]

(I'm having problem with Shift-Alt-NextGroup). My machine is Lenovo Thinkpad X220. Output of setxkbmap is as follow (if it will helps)

Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes: evdev+aliases(qwerty)
types: complete
compat: complete+ledscroll(group_lock)
symbols: pc+us+inet(evdev)+group(alt_shift_toggle)
geometry: pc(pc105)
xkb_keymap {
 xkb_keycodes { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
 xkb_types { include "complete" };
 xkb_compat { include "complete+ledscroll(group_lock)" };
 xkb_symbols { include "pc+us+inet(evdev)+group(alt_shift_toggle)" };
 xkb_geometry { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

[Banshee (banshee-sodar)]

Same here - affects after upgrade from 13.04 to 13.10. Cannot switch layouts via ctrl+shift, need cyclic switch.
This is critical.

[Banshee (banshee-sodar)]

With PPA: can set only Ctrl+ Shift R
On the left get Shift+Ctrl+Next Group
Keyboard: Logitech K800
I use en_US, ru_RU, ru_UA, sometimes en_UK

[Screatch (screatch)]

Hi William,

Your PPA really helped me and I was able to set my hotkey to Shift + Control L, however, CTRL + SHIFT + TAB combination, which I use to switch to previous tab in browser, doesn't work anyome. I am pretty sure that is related.

Would appreciate it if you coud take a look at this.

[Artyom Pertsovsky (skylight)]

William,

Microsoft Wire Keyboard 400
En (UK) <-> Ru

Can't assign Shift + Alt hotkey as the rest users from above.

[Denis Demkov (forekko)]

Долбоящеры.
Я на убунту потратил уже больше, чем стоит лицензионная копия Microsoft Windows 7 в моей стране. А у меня с обновлениями даже раскладка перестаёт переключаться...

[Denis Demkov (forekko)]

Below solution for some people...

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:attente/1218322
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

— it's make possible to switch layout via Shift+Ctrl, but I still need a simple Shift+Alt...((

LAYOUT SWITCHER, CANONICAL, CAN YOU DO IT???//

[Mehdi Hassanpour (mehdi)]

Really annoying bug, hope you can fix or find a workaround soon!

[Konstantinos Kypris (kcypre)]

I use en-US and el (greek) layouts and I can't change the shortcut or even use the predefined (super space) one. The installation is fresh.
Thank god I only upgraded my home PC since this is an unacceptable bug.

[goroskob (goroskob)]

With PPA Alt+Shift works, but Ctrl+Shift has Next Group bug. I use Asus F7Sr notebook.

[mpletnyov (mpletnyov)]

I used to switch layouts using RightWin key, and now when I try to set the 'switch to next source' to this key it shows just 'Next Group' (means nothing to me), and doesn't work.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@forekko
Используйте Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS (Precise Pangolin) и будет Вам счастье :)
Не LTS - это всегда своего рода эксперимент. А с каждой новой версией GNOME 3.X результат эксперимента становится все менее предсказуемым.

[Lockal (lockal)]

@nrbrtx, Gnome 3.10 from Gnome PPA allows to switch with ctrl+shift, so no reason to blame Gnome here. The problem is in Ubuntu infrastructure in common (unity, gsd, ibus, etc.). My wild guess is that Unity now intercepts all modifier keys (not just Alt like it was before) and then when user presses any normal key it passes the keypress event to the application.

[Constantine (theaspect)]

By the way, on login screen I can switch with old ctrl+shift. After login only awailable bind is ctrls+space

[MTelegin (maximtel)]

I gonna have to downgrade to 13.04 because of this bug.

[facepalm (roiii)]

I updated from Ubuntu 13.04 to 13.10 and the same bug with layout indicator :(... Alt+Shift does not change layout in indicator. Help!

[Ethan Shalev (shalev-ethan)]

Upgraded from 13.4 to 13.10. Suffering from this bug.
For now, set Alt+1 as layout changer.
I look forward to seeing this bug fixed.

And to all those working on Ubunto for free, on their own time, out of passion - thanks!

[Andrey Yurkovsky (andrey.yurkovsky)]

Right now on Ubuntu 13.10 with last updates layout changes both with Win+Space (indicator change state) and Alt+Shift (indicator don't change state).

[Assaf Shachar (asaf60)]

I can change layouts with Alt+shift but the indicator does not change, and only when I selects He as the language. If I choose En then I cannot change layouts at all. Is this a gnome issue can anyone confirm?

[Алексей Капранов (Alex Kapranoff) (kkapp)]

Just updated from the PPA https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/1218322 and the bug almost fixed!

Versions are:

 gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu44ppa2
 gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu9ppa4

I successfully switched from Alt+5 to Ctrl-Shift as my main layout changer. Even Caps Lock works but along with changing the input source it works as usual Caps Lock actually locking to capitals. This default CapsLock behaviour should be cancelled when it is used to change input source.

This issue is the only one I can find right now.

[isotope (vadim-ryazanov)]

Affects me. Panasonic CF-52 upgraded from 13.04 to 13.10

After playing a bit found out:
Unable to set Alt-Shift. Also could set Shift-Alt !!??? in settings
After setting Shift -Alt could not switch with Al-Shift.

Fianlly could use combination but in a very unconvenient way: press Shift, Press Alt, Unpress Shift, Unpress Alt.

I take it there is a big issue with reading key codes and ordering. Combination supposed to work either way.

Hope this bug will be resolved soon.
Thanks.

isotope

[asmodey (pavel-finkelshtein)]

Guys, this bug is critical! How can it be, that it isn't being fixed in months?

[zhum (serg-guru)]

Please, fix!!!

[Sergio (sergiorussia)]

I used CapsLock for switching for years (Shift+CapsLock for capitals locking), it must be fixed. I've temporarily set Ctrl+Shift+Space (as Super+Space does not work!) for switching and noticed that NumLock turns off every time i switch!

[Povilas Balzaravičius aka Pawka (pawka)]

Impossible to work while this bug exist. I can't believe this was released along with stable release. One more drop to switch to other distro.

[Valera Lewontyev (feedbee)]

Fix extremely needed!

[Serj Kondrashov (serj-kondrashov)]

Please, fix it!

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

1. I installed gnome-panel in fresh 13.10 and I can switch layouts with Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space.
What is interesting if I login (on boot) to Gnome Flashback session I can use Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space for layout switching.
If then I logout and login to Ubuntu (Unity) session I can switch layouts with Alt+Shift (scroll lock indicates layout, but indicator-keyboard in gnome panel is not change).
As far I can understand - Alt+Shift combination is created by installer and stored in /etc/default/keyboard (commented lines removed):
#...
XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ru"
XKBVARIANT=","
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
#...

2. I also installed fresh Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 and I unable to set Ctrl+Shift or Alt+Shift for layout switching in it. Alt+Shift works only if it is defined in /etc/default/keyboard (by ubiquity). Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space works normally.

3. @Lockal
installing GNOME 3.10 from PPA is not a solution for this bug.
The solution is to fix it before release or drop indicator-keyboard away now as not-well-tested alpha stage application. Or, of course, use 12.04.3 LTS.

So there are configuration problems between indicator-keyboard, xkbswitch, ibus and so on.

And it seems that ubiquity is also related to this bug - it wrote Alt+Shift combination to /etc/config/keyboard , while on first login there is a small notification about Ibus and Super+Space for layout switching. See https://launchpad.net/bugs/1242572 .

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I commented out all four lines in /etc/default/keyboard and installed packages from ppa:attente/1218322 and now I'm able to switch with Ctrl+Shift or Alt+Shift or Caps Lock. Thank you, William Hua!

Tested on:
1. Ubuntu 13.10 (Unity and Gnome Flashback sessions).
2. Ubuntu 13.10 GNOME (GNOME, GNOME Classic, GNOME FlashBack sessions).

But shortcuts (such as Ctrl+Alt+T) on non-latin layout do not work (see https://launchpad.net/bugs/1226962).

[jadi (jadijadi)]

Thank you @norbert, worked for me. Using Colemak+Farsi with Shift + Alt L

[Maxim Kuznetsov (mackuzzz)]

Thank You William and Norbert, it works on my laptop (Sony VPCEC1S1R, 64 bit, fresh install) (i've changed only "Switch to previous source" field to left Ctrl-Shift).
Now i'm searching the way to get back ability to change layout with Caps while it's pressed. It was possible in 13.04.

[Yannis (orions-belts1)]

Sorry it doesn't work foo me.. deleted lines in /etc/default/keyboard, install ppa, update-upgrade and restart. Changing through Region settings does not allow me set Shift-whatever.
Gnome-tweak-tool can be set to Alt - Shift and indicator changes but not the keyboard. Also pressing Alt-Shift in Gnome tweak (while Alt-Shift is set to change layout) crashes the tweak tool with segfault. in dmesg i see after the crash (
dconf worker[2633]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f216cdde1c0 sp 00007f215bffec48 error 4 in libpthread-2.17.so

[ssy (somsaks)]

For those who experience "NextGroup" problems, here is the procedure that make Alt-Shift works for me.

The problem seems to be that "Text Entry" double-detect the Alt-Shift as "NextGroup" key, which is the layout switch shortcut from xkb. The idea is to completely disable xkboptions for layout switching.

1. Install latest PPA packages of gnome-control-center and gnome-settings from above.
2. sudo vi /etc/default/keyboard, comment out everything unless you want to redo everything again.
3. dconf-editor, edit org->gnome->desktop->input-sources, empty "xkb-options". In my turn I have also empty "sources". YMMV.
4. Under System-Settings->Text-Entry, readd layout that might disappeared from the step above, the reassign shortcut as you desired. It should not detect Alt-Shift as "NextGroup" anymore.
5. For those who still doesn't works, try empty value in org->gnome->libgnomekbd->keyboard. I emptied all values including model, layout, and options.

Hope this helps.

[ssy (somsaks)]

Anyway, the problem with "Super-1" still persist in my case, strangely enough it only affect Pidgin, not other apps. It only has effect when my layout is "Th". If I press "Super-1", instead of switching to assigned application, it will output "ๅ" instead. Super-2 - 4 works ok.

Anyway this is still OK for me. Could be unrelated to this bug. Note that I already tried different input method on Pidgin but still none working (effect ranging from emitting "ๅ" or nothing happened at all).

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@ssy (somsaks)
I think that very few users know hotkeys of vi editor. So I recommend to change p. 2 in #159 to gedit.
(sudo gedit /etc/default/keyboard).

On fresh install (not upgrade) I deleted all files and directories which starts from dot by "rm -rf ~/.*".
But it is DANGEROUS if you need to save Firefox profile and other data from previous Ubuntu versions.

[ssy (somsaks)]

I found that actually the problem with "Super-1" for "Th" layout applied to all other app, not just Pidgin.

And another quite serious this bug applied to, after all the changes I made, is that I couldn't switch the layout in the lock screen!. It always show as "Th" even if I press "Alt-Shift" which works for normal desktop. Anyway I can still use mouse to switch the layout so I can get pass the lock screen.

Before applying the changes, layout indicator didn't appeared on the lock screen password prompt (in 13.04 it showed there and alt-shift worked as it should). If I switch the layout to "En" before lock screen, the layout indicator will not show at all. If the layout was "Th", the layout indicator will show "th" and either switch to next or previous group shortcut are not working at all. Mouse click works and I can safely log-in back.

[William Hua (attente)]

@ssy (somsaks)
Clearing the xkb grp option definitely seems to be fixing the Next Group problems. Thanks!

[Georgy Ivanov (georgy-v-ivanov)]

I experience the same problem as #162, after installing the patch I still cannot switch layouts using Alt+Shift in the lock screen

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

that's an important bug and difficult one, not a papercut target

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for the interest in this bug, we are going to do a first SRU with what is in the ppa, then iterate over that later with other fixes to address the remaining issues

That bug is getting difficult to follow, it would be nice if:

- the SRU testers would focus on testing the specific fix described (we know that some of the problems are still there, it shouldn't block us to fix some of the issues though)

- comments about how annoying that bug is (or about "how could you release with that bug?") would stop, we all agree it's an important issue and as working to address it, let's keep the bug useful to work to a solution

- we should perhaps file different bugs about the different issues, it's difficult to track different issues in a same ticket

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@Sebastian:

It's quite difficult to untagle the various issue. At first glance I see three basic problems:

- ability to change the keyboard layout switch to an arbitrary set of modifiers, even without a normal key in the sequence, and make the switch wrap-around (otherwise it's a pain for people with just two layouts).

- independence of the results from the order of press/release of the modifiers.

- possibility to remap Caps-Lock (which in my experience is one of the most used switch-key by the people that commonly writes in multiple languages like me) without it acting as a Caps-Lock, and reassign the Caps-Lock function to another combination (say, shift lock).

Obviously, all of this should work in coherency with the indicator. I will test it with the Ubuntu Gnome configuration, HTH.

[Francisco Cribari (cribari)]

I run Ubuntu Gnome on a DELL XPS 13 notebook that has an US keyboard configured as US alternative international (since I live in Brazil). After upgrading to version 13.10 I can no longer get a cedilla by typing apostrophe + c. Instead, I get ć . I did not have this problem prior to upgrading.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, if you're still having issues with the Next Group bug, please try the PPA again.

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Hello Dmitriy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-control-center into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45 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!

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Hello Dmitriy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-settings-daemon into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/3.8.5-0ubuntu10 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!

[goroskob (goroskob)]

One bug fixed, but now it became impossible to use combination of key you use to switch layout with other keys. With Ctrl+Shift binded for switching layouts I can't use shortcuts like Ctrl+Shift+C or Ctrl+Shift+V, which are used in terminal, etc.

[Sukochev Roman (Leolik) (leolik)]

Updated from proposed repository.
If I use Ctrl+Shift, layout switched and indicator icon switched too. But if I use Caps Lock (Next Group), layout switched, but indicator icon not :(( Please, fix it
My layouts: En and Ru

Sorry for my English.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> If I use Ctrl+Shift, layout switched and indicator icon switched too. But if I use Caps Lock (Next Group), layout switched, but indicator icon not :(( Please, fix it

that's not a verification-failed:
- the next group is another issue, read the description and testcase
- the indicator icon not updating is bug #1220204
- we are working on fixing the bug as you can probably see from the bug history

changing back to verification-done

[Viktor Suprun (popsul1993)]

Sebastien Bacher, bug #1220204 is not related to bug with updating keyboard icon and selected keyboard layout.
I've install update of gnome-control-center from proposed repository and restart the unity session, sets ctrl+shift for switching to next layout (I've two kbd layouts, en and ru), and if I press ctrl+shift keyboard layout switching to next (ru->en, en->ru) but icon and selected layout (in the menu of keyboard indicator) has not updating. Bullet on left side of the layout name remains on the "English" item, although what the layout actually selected.

[asmodey (pavel-finkelshtein)]

Updated from proposed. Shift+Caps worked and I think this bug is fixed.
But there is other bugs:
1) I should press Shift, press Caps, release Caps, release Shift. Otherwise layout switch isn't happening. It's unnatural
2) When I use Shift+Caps for layout switching, layout is switched, but letter registry changes too - if I used small letters in new layout they become BIG and vice versa.

Anyways, thank you for fix!

[asmodey (pavel-finkelshtein)]

Sorry, forgot to mension versions of software, which fixed bugs:
gnome-control-center 3.6.3-0ubuntu45_amd64.deb
gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu10_amd64.deb

[Boyko Danya (5n00p4eg)]

I add Proposed repo to install lastest software (with gnome-control-center 3.6.3-0ubuntu45_amd64.deb
 & gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu10_amd64.deb)
I cannot confirm that issue fixed.
Shift+Alt (Settings read it like "Shift+Alt+Next Group") Not working for me.
Shift L + Shift R (My faivorite shortcut) Impossible to assign
CTRL+Shift L - Only this one working for me.

[Karma Dorje (taaroa)]

"CapsLock" keys are just ignored in settings. "CapsLock+Shift" works as described in the #177 → not fully fixed.

gnome-settings-daemon:
  Installed: 3.8.5-0ubuntu10
gnome-control-center:
  Installed: 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45

verification-failed

[asmodey (pavel-finkelshtein)]

One else addition:
3) When keyboard layout is switched Num Lock turns off...

[Dmitry Pankratov (dremon)]

Updated gnome-settings-daemon to the latest proposed version. CAPS key switches layouts but also toggles the capital letters at the same time.

[asmodey (pavel-finkelshtein)]

4) Ctrl+Shift as layout switcher interferences with all other hotkeys using Ctrl+Shift - browser undo close tab, terminal open new tab and so on.

[lubart (slava-ua)]

After last update from ppa Ctrl+Shift works for me but only in Unity!
I still can not use this shortcut under Gnome 3.8. Simply I can not set this combination in Gnome as any other without space button.

In Unity I'm available to set Ctrl+Shift R and Ctrl+Shift L for next and previous layouts but both shortcuts set the next layout.
I can change only like En>Uk>Ru>En but can not like En>Uk>En.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Hi,

I've updated from proposed: gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45 and gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu10. Then logged out and in.

1. Leftovers from the old xkb setup still interfere with the new system in ways I described in comment 46, making it an unusable chaos. Manually removing the old shortcut key from gnome-tweak-tool leads to a quite usable new setup. Apparently this is a problem for many others (the shortcut key given to Text Entry containing NextGroup). If the old method of changing layout conflicts with the new method in such ways then the upgrade procedure needs to clean up the old setting.

2. If I choose Ctrl+Space as shortcut, the release order still matters when I try to use it, though it shouldn't. The "rolling" way of pressing the keys, which is way more natural for me (press Ctrl, press Space, release Ctrl, release Space) doesn't work.

3. If I choose Alt+Shift, all four press/release orders are accepted now and change the layout. Still, the indicator updates when I release the first modifier. The indicator should be updated as soon as I've pressed both modifiers. After all, all other keys in the system take action when I press them, not when I release.

4. The Text Entry window accepts single modifiers (like "Shift L") to change layout, but they don't actually change it. Text Entry should refuse such shortkeys.

5. When specifying Ctrl+Space as shortcut, the release order does matter again. The "rolling" order results in "Ctrl L" being the new shortcut, which is unusable. The release order shouldn't matter here either.

6. When specifying Alt+Shift as a shortcut, I "randomly" get either "Alt+Shift L" or "Shift+Alt L". Of course the behavior is not the same in the two cases, e.g. the right shift works in one but not in the other. The one which is chosen depends (just like in bullet point 5) on the order in which I release the two keys. If a difference needs to be made between these two cases, it's the press order that should matter.

[Yannis (orions-belts1)]

Deleted above comment (#185) since the bug is for the UI, which is not fixed for me (GNOME Remix 13.10, gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45). In the settings Shift - Alt, Shift-Ctr or Caps are not accepted yet
I changed org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindigs.switch_input_source to ['<Alt>Shift_L'] to get it working alltough typing order does apply. (Allthough i haven't noticed it earlier since i press Alt first usually)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I'm setting the bug as verification-done since several of the comment confirms it fixes the issues described in the testcase.

The fixes as not perfect but please open new bugs [1] for the remaining issues:

* "should press Shift, press Caps, release Caps, release Shift. Otherwise layout switch isn't happening. It's unnatural"

* "use Shift+Caps for layout switching, layout is switched, but letter registry changes too"

* "Leftovers from the old xkb setup still interfere with the new system in ways I described in comment 46"

* "The Text Entry window accepts single modifiers (like "Shift L") to change layout, but they don't actually change it" (that one is actually a gnome-control-center bug)

* other issues that are not fixed by the current SRU and not listed before

Having different tickets for those is going to make commenting/updating the status of the bugs easier

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+filebug

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

I really do not think that this is fixed... yes, now you can set Ctrl+Alt, but this has side effects that I think are still directly related to this bug, affecting gnome-settings-daemon and gnome-control-center:

1) to make Ctrl+Alt+whatever other key combinations not working anymore
2) the fact that remnants of kbd settings are affecting setup (it will generate a lot of confusion)
3) the interface accepts and shows as accepted configurations that are not working.

I agree that the other bugs are separated, but I think that these issues should be solved before marking this bug fixed.

Anyway, if anyone opens a new bug on the remaining issues, please post the bug number here. Thanks.

[lubart (slava-ua)]

Ctrl+Shift starts to work in Gnome 3.8 when I choose in gnome-tweak-tool Ctrl position and change layout buttons to disable.

Now this shortcut works fine but I can set it only in Unity.

[Alex (alex85)]

Confirm, works for me (Alt+Shift L)

The fix is verified in
> gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45 i386
> gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu10 i386

Thanks.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@ Mikhail Priver: could you please not change the tag like that?

[Serg Kusch (sergkusch)]

doesn't works for me on asus zenbook. when i try to set "alt+shift" i get "alt+shift+next group"

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> doesn't works for me on asus zenbook. when i try to set "alt+shift" i get "alt+shift+next group"

the next-group issue is another bug and should be fixed in the ppa version

[Vassili Platonov (vassilip)]

All work on HP-ProBook-4320s: us_ru with Alt+Shift L, Ctrl+Shift, CapsLock. I prefer Alt+Shift L.

gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45 amd64
gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu10 amd64

Much thanks :)

[Sergio (sergiorussia)]

@William Hua, I have updated packages from proposed repo, so currently i got
  gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45 amd64
  gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu10 amd64
but still CapsLock switching does not work for me. Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000, en-us and ru-ru layouts.
CapsLock binding is dispayed as Next Group in Text Entry Settings and as Mod2 + Next Group in Keyboard Shortcuts.

As @Sebastien Bacher said, "next-group issue should be fixed in the ppa version" but proposed version is newer than PPA's, so apt says that there's nothing to update.

P.S.: Also as i mentioned before, switching between layouts, say, with Alt + Shift L or whatsoever, also turns off NumLock.

[Sergio (sergiorussia)]

…P.P.S.: sorry, it actually does Not turns off NumLock, just its indicator light. but still it worked correctly in 13.04

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Sergio and all others affected by this. I did another upload to the PPA updating the versions, the packages should be published within a couple of hours. If you could please do an update at that time and see if the Next Group problem is still an issue. Thank you.

[vladk (vladkonan)]

next group issue fixed for me with last ppa update

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

(add proposed)
Try "caps lock" - it type "next group".
Noway to set combination for tty. I still have working "caps lock" in tty.

[Avi Schwartz (le-avion)]

The latest PPA version fixed the problem for me. I can now use Alt-Space and Alt-Shift-Space to switch to next and previous keyboards.

1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45ppa1 amd64
3.8.5-0ubuntu10ppa1 amd64

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Tested (sorry for the comment below). Works for me with Alt+Shift_L
THANKS!

[Sergio (sergiorussia)]

@William Hua, I have tested latest ppa updates,
1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45ppa1 amd64
3.8.5-0ubuntu10ppa1 amd64

NextGroup issue is now fixed, but CapsLock switching still works incorrectly. To sum up:
- setting CapsLock in TextEntry / Switch to next source using now works but when switching CAPS mode is also turned on (so it seems like "abc… [CapsLock] АБВГД… [CapsLock] abc…", that should be definitely fixed! Note though, Shift+CapsLock or Ctrl+CapsLock switches CAPS mode but not layout
- setting CapsLock in Keyboard / Shortcuts / Typing / Switch to next source results in Mod2+CapsLock and switching does NOT work
- hitting any modifier (Ctrl, Shift, Alt) switches NumLock light off, but CapsLock switches it back, omg :)

[Ratchanan Srirattanamet (peat-new)]

Upgrade to:
gnome-control-center : 3.6.3-0ubuntu45
gnome-settings-daemon : 3.8.5-0ubuntu10

Now Alt+Shift worked. FYI, I've clear the xkb settings before upgrade (as in comment #159). Is it possible to clear old settings during upgrade package? (at least in /etc/default/keyboard)

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Is it important to clear /etc/default/keyboard? For me it contains only one of the layouts, and no hotkey to change. I didn't alter that file, I only had to remove the gnome-tweak-tool stuff and it works reasonably well.

[lubart (slava-ua)]

Also upgrade to:
gnome-control-center : 3.6.3-0ubuntu45
gnome-settings-daemon : 3.8.5-0ubuntu10

My favorite shortcut Ctrl+Shift works, but there are few notices.
1. In Unity Ctrl+Shift R and Ctrl+Shift L work the same and I can not move to the previous or to the next source, it always changes to the next source.
2. Impossible to use Ctrl+Shift+V (Ctrl+Shift+C) in Terminal, NetBeans, etc. This moment is critical for me! Is some solution or workaround for it? Or maybe it's some another bug? :)

[Vadim Skipin (vadim-skipin)]

I can confirm that CRTL+SHIFT R and CRTL+SHIFT L works after upgrade to:
gnome-control-center : 3.6.3-0ubuntu45
gnome-settings-daemon : 3.8.5-0ubuntu10

(I have to manually reset org.gnome.desktop.input-sources.xkb-options to default value using dconf-editor)

But as lubart (slava-ua) mentioned CTRL+SHIFT+anything do not work anymore :(
CTRL+SHIFT+C/V in terminal, CTRL+SHIFT+arrows in editors - I can't live without it!

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, there's a new update to the PPA (gnome-settings-daemon=3.8.5-0ubuntu10ppa2), it just resets the Caps Lock state when the input source is switched. I realize it isn't perfect and several issues remain, but hopefully this will works until we can do a proper fix.

[Sergio (sergiorussia)]

Hi William. Thanks for the fix, at least its usable now.
I hope you'll make the proper fix, because as they say "there is nothing more permanent than temporary" :) several issues remain, its true, and still the most scary are
- setting CapsLock in Keyboard / Shortcuts / [any group] / [any action] results in Mod2+CapsLock and shortcut/switching does NOT work. Same for Super. Did not try other keys but i think its all caused by the same issue
- as mentioned in comment #155, shortcuts on non-latin layout do not work, but thats another bug https://launchpad.net/bugs/1226962, however that bug affects the same package gnome-settings-daemon…

ps: i sill wonder who ever decided to break all this stuff at once? looks like many things go to release simply untested like commit-and-pray…

[SimpleLeon (simpleleon)]

this bug should be fixed as soon as possible, i don't want to use alt+space to change layout

[Maxim Kuznetsov (mackuzzz)]

After last update Caps Lock is working correctly and Caps feature working with Alt-Caps. Now i can use it instead of "while pressed" feature, because it's comfortable enough. Thank You, William!

Upd. Pressing Ctrl-Shift or Alt-Shift still turns off Num Lock indicator, but Caps is working correctly.
Tried to switch layout in Chromium plugin (Instant translate), but Caps is working as Caps and not switching layouts there. And Ctrl-Shift isn't working in that plugin too.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Roman; since this bug is invalid for the "indicator-keyboard (Ubuntu)" package, it is also for its "Saucy" series.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello!
It seems that problem discussed in this bug report is wider.
In next six month 14.04 will be prepared and arrived. It's LTS. So users of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS may want to update to it.
What they have now (in Ubuntu 12.04.3)?
They have very wide choose of available hotkeys for layout change. Let's see.

In Ubuntu 12.04.3, under gnome-control-center keyboard we have (select tab "Typing", click on link "Layout Settings" in left bottom corner of window, press the "Options" button in the top right corner of window, window "Keyboard Layout Options" is opened).
Under "Key(s) to change layout" it has:
    Alt+Caps Lock
    Alt+Ctrl
    Alt+Shift
    Alt+Space
    Any Win key (while pressed)
    Both Alt keys together
    Both Ctrl keys together
    Both Shift keys together
    Caps Lock
    Caps Lock (to first layout), Shift+Caps Lock (to last layout)
    Caps Lock (while pressed), Alt+Caps Lock does the original capslock action
    Ctrl+Shift
    Left Alt
    Left Alt+Left Shift
    Left Alt (while pressed)
    Left Ctrl
    Left Ctrl+Left Shift
    Left Ctrl+LeftWin (to first layout), RightCtrl+Menu (to second layout)
    Left Ctrl (to first layout), Right Ctrl (to last layout)
    Left Shift
    Left Win
    Left Win (to first layout), Right Win/Menu (to last layout)
    Left Win (while pressed)
    Menu
    Right Alt
    Rigth Alt (while pressed)
    Right Ctrl
    Right Ctrl+Right Shift
    Right Ctrl (while pressed)
    Right Shift
    Right Win
    Right Win (while pressed)
    Scroll Lock
    Shift+Caps Lock

This list is very long but universal. Defined hotkeys are full-functional. For example if I set Ctrl+Shift for layout changing I can copy and paste in gnome-terminal with Ctrl+Shift+C / V.
I do not want to post other "Keyboard Layout Options" features, that missed in 13.10. But they are of course missed.

What we have now in 13.10 (ppa or proposed)?
We have simple shortcuts (for example Alt+Shift and Ctrl+Shift) and do not have other.
I am going to detect and report separate bugreports for each hotkey which does not work correctly in 13.10. If anybody want to help me, it would be good.

Keyboard layout switching is most important and most essential functionality.

IMHO. I do not agree with GNOME simpilicity/stupidity modern style and I hope that 14.04 will be polished and full-functional as Precise Pangolin. I understand that some of the keyboard layout switch options are available in gnome-tweak-tool, but it is not right place for them. Layout switching is a common feature, there is no reason to hide it under not-preinstalled tool.

Let's make Trusty Tahr the greatest Ubuntu LTS release!

[Gergely SZABÓ (netbakter)]

@nrbrtx, I can absolutely agree with you. The freedom of choosing key combinations for such essential tasks as switching keyboard layouts were there for ages. I don't see the reason why they needed to break it.
How can we help?

[Andrew.Y (andrew.y)]

@nrbrtx
Totally agree. Going to support idea with separate bugreports (after this bug will be closed of course).

By the way, this bug is the most heated at the Saucy tracker now - 2620 currently (other bugs has about 750 and below), so it looks like a _real_ problem, not just minor defect.

...And don't forget about LED indicators (Caps, Scroll, ...) for keyboard layout indication - that was _very_ handy feature too.

[Jan Groenewald (jan-aims)]

I'm fine with the new super+space defaults, except -- super+space does not
switch my layout.

On 24 October 2013 14:12, <email address hidden> <email address hidden> wrote:

> @nrbrtx
> Totally agree. Going to support idea with separate bugreports (after this
> bug will be closed of course).
>
> By the way, this bug is the most heated at the Saucy tracker now - 2620
> currently (other bugs has about 750 and below), so it looks like a
> _real_ problem, not just minor defect.
>
> ...And don't forget about LED indicators (Caps, Scroll, ...) for
> keyboard layout indication - that was _very_ handy feature too.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of AIMS,
> which is subscribed to the bug report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322
>
> Title:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc.
>
> Status in One Hundred Papercuts:
> Invalid
> Status in Indicator keyboard:
> Invalid
> Status in Ubuntu GNOME:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “indicator-keyboard” package in Ubuntu:
> Invalid
> Status in “gnome-control-center” source package in Saucy:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” source package in Saucy:
> Fix Committed
> Status in “indicator-keyboard” source package in Saucy:
> Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> === gnome-control-center ===
>
> Impact: the UI to change the layout switching keys doesn't work
>
> Test case:
> - open gnome-control-center's text input settings
> - click on the "next layout key" entry
> - try entering a key combinaison (e.g ctrl-space)
> -> the UI should reflect the new keys
>
> Regression potential: that UI was not working before, it should only
> be an improvement (some key combos are not working as expected, that's
> another issue and shouldn't be mixed with this one)
>
> === gnome-settings-daemon ===
>
> Impact: attempting to change keyboard layouts using only modifier keys
> doesn't work
>
> Test case:
> - add at least two input sources through gnome-control-center's text
> entry settings
> - use gsettings to set the input switching shortcut to ctrl+left shift:
> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source
> "['<Primary>Shift_L']"
> - press and release ctrl+left shift
> -> the current input source should change
>
> Regression potential: The input switching shortcut might capture other
> non-modifier shortcuts, but users will need to consider this when
> choosing their switching shortcut anyways. For users this bug affects,
> this represents a working solution for a critical bug.
>
> ----------------------
>
> Can't set keyboard layout change to ctrl+shift, Caps Lock, alt+shift
> etc. "Shift", "CapsLock" keys are just ignored in settings. Also the
> default shortcut was set to "Super+Space" that is inconveniently,
> because Dash is opening when you swich your keyboard layout.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
> Package: indicator-keyboard 0.0.0+13.10.20130829.1-0ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubu...

[Julien-Charles Lévesque (jclevesque)]

Updated gnome-control-center and gnome-control-center-data from saucy-proposed. Logged out, back in. It works now, I was able to set short-cut to Left Ctrl+Shift and it switches properly.

Thanks!

[Julien-Charles Lévesque (jclevesque)]

However, I left the default shortcut to "Switch to previous source" (Shift+Super+Space).. I tested it and it doesn't work, no matter the order in which I press the keys.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Probably there are reasons that make this impossible, so please take this a naïve suggestion (no offense intended to all the people working on this, especially William) --- but what about going back to the 13.04 situation? Now I am trying to reenable the ctl-alt-backspace x-kill (gnome shell tends to hang sometime...) and can't find how. The old layout setting option windows that Norbert is citing was really useful and covered all needs.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

I'd like to second Sergio's problem with the NumLock. Switching layouts turns numlock off (kind of). More precisely:

The digits except 5 work as arrow/home/etc. keys, but 5 inserts a literal 5. This is a weird mixture I've never seen before and I can't see any rationale whatsoever. Pressing NumLock once turns it off completely (5 does nothing), pressing once again turns it on. So I actually have to press it twice to switch it on.

I want to have my NumLock on all the time (I use the keypad for typing digits, never as arrows). I switch layouts very often, sometimes even like once per minute or so. Having to press NumLock twice every time after such a switch in unacceptable for me.

I don't have a NumLock LED, I can't tell how that would be lit.

[Levan Chelidze (levanchelidze)]

Sure the update fixed the alt+Shift problem but when I press it it somehow disables the lights on the keybord yes the num lock still works but the lights are off and if a press it twice or press caps lock or something the lights re enable

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Hello Dmitriy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-settings-daemon into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1 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!

[David (david.regev)]

I can verify that the -proposed packages restore the ability to use Alt+Shift and, more importantly, Shift+Shift. Some combinations, however, still do not work. Alt+Alt is still broken (as it has been for years now, unfortunately). Trying to use that shortcut gets misinterpreted. Any chance for a full fix?

[Anton Veretenenko (anton.veretenenko)]

Still failed for me.
I always used Right Ctrl to switch layouts.
Now UI let's me set it to "Control R", but it does not switch layout at all.
It does not let me set Alt+Shift displaying this shortcut as "Shift+Alt+Next Group".
Does not let set two shifts.
Ctrl+Alt does not switch layout if set.
Super+Space does not switch layout and type space in the editor.
Caps Lock does not switch layout if set.
Only Ctrl+Space works.

gnome-settings-daemon:
  Installed: 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1
gnome-control-center:
  Installed: 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45

[Ratchanan Srirattanamet (peat-new)]

I just upgrade package from -proposed on another machine. This time, I didn't clear any setting before upgrade. The result is when i set the input switching to Alt+Shift, it's shown as Alt+Shift+Next Group and Alt+Shift doesn't change input language. So i cleared key org/gnome/desktop/input-sources/xkb-options in doconf-editor and set the input switching again, it's worked as expected.
So, it seems like we only have to clear old settings in dconf, as i'm not clear anything in /etc/default/keyboard. I think it's appropriate task of gnome-settings-daemon. How do you think?

P.S. If anyone want to see, I've attached my /etc/default/keyboard below.

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

Much better already. Caps Lock works fine (indicator blinking on switching but it no matter).
Right Ctrl does not work. It types "Level3 Shift" and does not work.

I think switching for DE and tty should work the same way and configure in one place.

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

Caps Lock reset on switching.

[Aleksey Kishkin (a-kishkin)]

I use Capslock for switching keyboard layouts, it works now, but one problem still persists:

when session is locked, capslock does not change layout (in the password field, for unlocking). For instance, if session become locked when I have russian keyboard layout , I cannot switch it for english to enter the password.

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

scroll lock - work (I does not have indicator)
num lock - fail (I does not have indicator)
Basically no one of them no need me.

Shift + Alt L - work
Ctrl + Shift L - work
Ctrl + Ctrl - fail (type Ctrl + Level3 Shift)
Ctrl + Space - work (not always the first time when I try switch fast)
Ctrl + Shift + Space - work
Ctrl + Alt - work
Shift + Ctrl + Alt L - work

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

Then indicator hide by unknown reason...

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

Shift + Shift - fail (can't set, type "Shift R")

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

During setup Caps Lock, register also switches.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Why invalid? The bug is still here, and it is taken care of by the developers...

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Kirill, can you try the PPA versions of gnome-settings-daemon and gnome-control-center instead to see if it helps your issues at all?

[Žygimantas Beručka (zygis)]

Having the most recent packages from the -proposed, I noticed some strange and different scenarious.

Firs of all, on my laptop running GNOME 3.8 from the GNOME3 PPA:

1. I _am_ able to change the keyboard layout with the (now default) Super+Space combo; however,
2. Whenever I press my old combo of choice (Shift+Shift), the layout (whichever is activated) is changed to a English one despite me not even having it on the layout list. What is even stranger, despite keyboard layout being switched to an English one, I see the indicator's label changing as if it is normally cycling through the layouts. No matter how many times I would press the aforementioned combo, I am unable to switch back to any of the layouts on my list. Solution: to press Super+Space or with the mouse.

Secondly, on another laptop running Unity:

1. I am _not_ able to change the keyboard layout with the default Super+Space combo, nothing happens when I press it. Or rather it just inputs a space wherever the input cursor is.
2. I _am_ able to change and cycle through the layouts after changing the default Super+Space combo (which does not work) to Shift+Alt.

[Viktor Kazakov (kvs16)]

Alt + Shift now works fine for me.

[Sys (sysradium)]

There is also a problem with different apps, liks X2GO Client for example. If inside a remote desktop i have an ALT+Shift combo for a language cycling and if i choose the same combo on my local PC i end up with the problem that on a local PC layout switches normally, but when i connect to a remote server using x2go client alt+shift cycles only layout on a local PC and not on a remote one - it just stays the same there. If i choose a CAPS LOCK on both local and remote machines it cycles ok but on a remote besides a language change i also get capital letters ... But i want to use alt+shift, so the caps lock case does not really bother me.

Also it should be mentioned (maybe it is another bug) that different global hotkeys like ctrl+alt+T for launching terminal does not work unless you are in a US (or just latin) layout.

I still have a laptop with ubuntu 13.04 and everything i have described over works ok. It worked OK until the 13.10 upgrade on a desktop.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

As a part of the Stable Release Updates quality process a search for Launchpad bug reports using the version of gnome-control-center from saucy-proposed was performed and bug 1244499 was found. Please investigate this bug report to ensure that a regression will not be created by this SRU. In the event that this is not a regression remove the "verification-failed" tag from this bug report and tag 1244499 "bot-stop-nagging". Thanks!

[Andrew Grabko (andrew-grabko)]

Shortcuts in Intellij IDEA are broken. Not sure if a separate bug should be created for that

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

Hi William, I not see any changes, sorry..
Register still resets on switching.
During setup Caps Lock, register also switches.
Ctrl R still does not work itself and with any combination.
Indicator still become invisible in some moment.

Also I found new problem with switching by Caps Lock: field (including this text field) lose focus on a moment during switching . It especial annoying when you create folder in file dialog. Focus lost - folder not created and you need press "Create Folder" again.

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

Environment shortcuts is also bracken for other sources..(

[Kirill Jakovlev (special-k)]

clarification
field (including this text field) lose focus on a moment during switching *with any combination not the only Caps*.

[Michael Demetriou (qwazix)]

I find that my old Alt+Shift combination is still working when the mouse is over the gnome top bar. Even if the setting is to have a single layout for all windows, the change does not reflect the actual chosen input language.

[Ergys Dona (ergysdo)]

Hello William.

I added you PPA and dist-upgraded, now everything works fine for me. I did not modify any other settings apart from adding the PPA.

Thank you very much.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello!
I created a bug report for missed Keyboard Layout Options window in 13.10 - see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1245064.

[Joseph Chereshnovsky (joseph.chereshnovsky)]

Setting "Ctrl+Shift" combination doesn't switches layout and results in "Ctrl+Shift+Next Group". What is "Next Group"??

[Artem Popov (artfwo)]

Switching layouts in gnome-screensaver dialog doesn't work. Bug report:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1244548

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Reported bugs about default layout switching shortcuts - Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space found in:
* Unity greeter (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-greeter/+bug/1245137);
* Unity session (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1245136);
* lock screen - gnome-screensaver (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1245138);
* ubiquity installer (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1242572).

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

As I said in comment #215; since this bug is invalid for the "indicator-keyboard (Ubuntu)" package, it is also for its "Saucy" series.

If you feel this is mistaken, please explain why.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@andrew.y (#218)
I reported a bug about missed LEDs to show alternative layout configuration (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1245188)

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Reported bug about missing Miscellaneous compatibility options in gnome-control-center keyboard as I use - "Shift with numeric keypad keys works as in MS Windows" in Ubuntu 12.04.3 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1245199).

[Данило Шеган (danilo)]

This behaves very weirdly for me, even with the update to

$ dpkg -s gnome-settings-daemon
...
Version: 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1
...

from saucy-proposed. On one computer (let's call it "desktop"), my shortcuts stopped working except in gnome-screensaver: I used to use "Both Shift keys together switch the layout" option in the past. Shift_L, Shift_R for ISO_Next_Group and Shift_R, Shift_L for ISO_Prev_Group.

On another (let's call it "laptop") they worked once I set them up, but they were recorded as "Shift + Next_Group" and "Shift + Prev_Group". I haven't tried updating laptop to the -proposed version, but judging from the ChangeLog, I assume that will stop working now as well.

I don't have keyboard layout set in xorg.conf on either of the machines. Setting the key directly using gsettings to a value that works on my laptop (or to "['<Shift_R><Shift_L>']") didn't help on my desktop. I'll switch to defining shortcuts and layouts with setxkbmap directly (oh, the good ol' times :) hoping that will help.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

It seems that proposed packages make Alt+Shift hotkey usable in Unity and GNOME sessions.
But Alt+Shift does not work in gnome-screensaver lock screen (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1245256) and in unity-greeter (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-greeter/+bug/12452581).

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

It seems that proposed packages make Ctrl+Shift hotkey usable in Unity and GNOME sessions.
But Ctrl+Shift does not work in gnome-screensaver lock screen (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1245270) and unity-greeter (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-greeter/+bug/1245268).

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Gnome-control-center from proposed updates does not allow to set Shift+Shift for layout switching (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1245272).

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

With latest packages from ppa:attente/1218322 (gnome-control-center 3.6.3-0ubuntu45ppa1, gnome-control-center-data 3.6.3-0ubuntu45ppa1, libgnome-control-center1 3.6.3-0ubuntu45ppa1) I can set Shift+Shift for keyboard layout switching, they are usable in GNOME and Unity sessions, but Shift+Shift does not work on lock screen - gnome-screensaver (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1245278) and in Unity greeter (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-greeter/+bug/1245280).

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

So for today we have:
* Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space does not work at all;
* Alt+Shift works in Unity and GNOME, but does not work in unity-greeter and gnome-screensaver,
* Ctrl+Shift works in Unity and GNOME, but does not work in unity-greeter and gnome-screensaver,
* Shift+Shift may be set only with packages from ppa:attente/1218322, works in Unity and GNOME, but does not work in unity-greeter and gnome-screensaver.

I reported many separate bug reports, which belong to keyboard layout switching. They need confirmation.
I hope that all of them will be fixed soon and we get Ubuntu 14.04 LTS most functional and usable as Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS now.

[Giannis (karzisss)]

In my case shortcut (alt-shift) it does change actual layout language (English to Greek) but indicator still shows "en" whatever I choose.

[Klass_Ivan (klass-ivanklass)]

As for me, when layout switching is set to Ctrl-Shift, it affects Ctrl-Shift-<any-letter> hotkeys. It wasn`t a problem in 13.04.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Alberto: could you avoid destroying status of bugs like you just did? you dropped gnome-control-center from that bug report where we have an ongoing SRU for that component

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Due to a launchpad bug we can't add gnome-control-center/saucy back to the bug after it got deleted

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

setting back to verification-done, the fixes are not perfect but we got lot of feedback saying it's a solid improvement over saucy

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

@Sebastien: Sorry, in comment #237 I had been advised of this; but it seemed I just expended too much time triaging and, although I read commentaries, I didn't notice what was said. In fact I have been dreaming at night about bug triaging.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Please just don't touch the bug status. Also, not a bug in upstream GNOME.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon - 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1

---------------
gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/git_keyboard-Don-t-set-the-XKB-group-switching-option.patch:
    - If the user has the grp xkb option enabled, pressing the specified key
      might result in a Next Group keysym instead of the normal one. g-s-d
      doesn't use the option, and prevents it from being used with the patch.
  * debian/patches/unity-modifier-media-keys.patch:
    - Caps lock, next group, double modifier workarounds (lp: #1218322)

gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu11) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/ubuntu-lid-open-reset-ideletime.patch:
    change idle-timeout-reset key sequence from Alt to Shift (lp: #1227920)

gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu10) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/unity-modifier-media-keys.patch:
    - Support modifier-only keyboard shortcuts (lp: #1218322)
 -- William Hua <email address hidden> Thu, 24 Oct 2013 10:46:19 -0400

[Cyberangel (tomas8769)]

Cannot toggle language with ctrl+shift on the login screen, when the system is locked. Have to change language with the mouse click.

[Georgy Ivanov (georgy-v-ivanov)]

Same problem persists: I cannot switch layouts on the lock screen using Alt+Shift

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

For me (Gnome shell, gdm locking screen) it _seems_ to work (if I press Alt+Shift the overhead windows appears and seems to change layout). Couldn't really test, too, because the password is typed in the exactly same way on my two layouts. (yes, it has plenty od special char. Happening to be in the same spot).

It would be useful if people that says it doesn't work could give a bit more info: which display manager (gdm, lightdm), which DE (Gnome-shell, Unity)...

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

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.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello, guys!
@Cyberangel (tomas8769), @Georgy Ivanov (georgy-v-ivanov)
Please add a comment to the corresponding bug 1244548

@Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)
Great idea. We already have bug reports (see bug description) for unity-greeter (bug 1228207) and gnome-screensaver (lock screen, bug 1244548).
If anybody will find that layout switching is not working for example in gdm, they can report new bug and update the description here.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon - 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1

---------------
gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/git_keyboard-Don-t-set-the-XKB-group-switching-option.patch:
    - If the user has the grp xkb option enabled, pressing the specified key
      might result in a Next Group keysym instead of the normal one. g-s-d
      doesn't use the option, and prevents it from being used with the patch.
  * debian/patches/unity-modifier-media-keys.patch:
    - Caps lock, next group, double modifier workarounds (lp: #1218322)

gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu11) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/ubuntu-lid-open-reset-ideletime.patch:
    change idle-timeout-reset key sequence from Alt to Shift (lp: #1227920)

gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu10) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/unity-modifier-media-keys.patch:
    - Support modifier-only keyboard shortcuts (lp: #1218322)
 -- William Hua <email address hidden> Thu, 24 Oct 2013 10:46:19 -0400

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-control-center - 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45

---------------
gnome-control-center (1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45) saucy; urgency=low

  [ Iain Lane ]
  * debian/patches/97_unity_power_ui.patch: Don't crash if indicator-power
    isn't installed. When deciding whether to display/not display the
    indicator-power options, use the presence of indicator-power instead of
    just checking if Unity is the DE in use. (LP: #1195481)
  * debian/control.in: Build-Depend on glib >= 2.31.2 for
    g_settings_schema_source_ref.

  [ William Hua ]
  * debian/patches/input-sources-text-entry.patch:
    - support modifier-only input-source switching (lp: #1218322)
 -- Iain Lane <email address hidden> Fri, 18 Oct 2013 12:47:01 +0100

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-control-center - 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu46

---------------
gnome-control-center (1:3.6.3-0ubuntu46) trusty; urgency=low

  [ Iain Lane ]
  * 0001-rfkill-glib-Don-t-use-g_assert_not_reached-in-type_t.patch:
    Cherry-pick 90f49a4d5dd646b8fce10f61a9231db4973a907b from upstream.
    rfkill-glib: Don't use g_assert_not_reached in type_to_string. New kernel
    versions can add new RFKILL types, we should not crash here, just say that
    we don't know what the switch is. (LP: #1209092)

  [ Jian-Ding Chen (timchen119) ]
  * Add additional options to the power option system sleep settings menu.
    Add 20 minutes and 2 hours options to give the user more fine-grained
    controls. (LP: #1244065)

  [ William Hua ]
  * debian/patches/input-sources-text-entry.patch:
    - Next group and double modifier input-source switching (LP: #1218322)
 -- Iain Lane <email address hidden> Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:48:04 +0000

[n0dwis (n0dwis-u)]

Now i'ts possible to select (?) keys Shift, Alt, Ctrl and it's combination as a layout switchers. But language keep same. Neither Indicator nor real input be changed.
Ctrl+Space works fine like before.

[n0dwis (n0dwis-u)]

I found one more bug. When I try to set Alt+Space for switch layout Super+Space are shown.

[Andrew.Y (andrew.y)]

Unfortunately, for [at least] Caps Lock as layout switching key current state definitely not "Fix Released". Just "some workaround available".

So... After update to 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1 from saucy-updates/main (environment restart required):

What is OK:
 * Caps Lock could be set as next/previous layout switching key via System Settings->Text Entry
 * When Caps Lock is set as layout switching key original Caps Lock function could be achieved via Shift+Caps Lock, Caps Lock LED for Caps Lock function works OK

What is broken:
 * Caps Lock could not be set as next/previous layout switching key via System Settings->Keyboard->Shortcuts->Typing
 * Each layout switch with Caps Lock key resets original Caps Lock function state to off, so there's no more Caps Lock function, just some kind of sticky Shift
 * No ability to use Caps Lock LED for current layout indication (already reported as separate bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-gnome/+bug/1245188 )

And last but not least... Specials thanks to William Hua for saving this Ubuntu release.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

This bug has been partially fixed for me. I used left shift + caps lock to change language in 13.04 and it know works in 13.10. I haven’t used the control panel application to set those keys, they are kept from the upgrade to 13.10.

However, the indicator (US, SV etc) never changes between languages unless I mouse click, even when the keyboard layout changes.

[Peter Chervenski (spookey)]

The fix didn't work for me. I still can't set Control-Shift to switch between layouts. I can use Alt-X or Control-X, but not Control-Shift. It stays "Disabled".

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello! Thank you for update, William!

I did some tests. I have enabled proposed-updates in my clean Ubuntu 13.10 installation.
So I use latest packages:
gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45
gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1.

I made tests on clean user profile at each hotkey assign.
I prepared a table in Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing).

My test results are:
1. The default hotkey - Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space do not work in Unity session, but work in GNOME session flashback (with or without effects). We have separate bug for it (bug 1245136).
2. Alt+Shift works.
3. Ctrl+Shift works, but breaks all shortcuts, which start from Ctrl+Shift+ (for example, copy and paste in gnome-terminal is broken - see bug 1246656). Current behaviour of Ctrl+Shift disallows to select words by Ctrl+Shift+arrows. I unable to enter Firefox private session (because of Ctrl+Shift+P is broken too). So Ctrl+Shift is almost fully broken.
4. Shift+Shift works, but I can't set this shortcut from gnome-control-center in Unity (it tells only Shift R), I set it from GNOME Session FlashBack gnome-control-center (it reports Shift+Shift R).

In GNOME FlashBack (with effects) Alt+Tab is broken (bug 1246643). I don't know is it connected with layout-switching bugs.
Ctrl+Alt+T (launch terminal) still does not work in non-latin layout (it is bug 1226962) in Unity and GNOME Session FlashBack (without effects), but works in GNOME Session FlashBack (with effects) .

So the bug is partially fixed.

The aforementioned Google Docs table may be editable by anyone with link. If you want to test other hotkeys for keyboard layout change or test them under Ubuntu-GNOME - you can do it and add lines to the table.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Since this bug is only partially fixed, it's reverted to a status of "triaged".

[Franko Burolo (fburolo)]

I am basically satified with the fix (using Alt+CapsLock), but I can confirm that if I write in caps lock, when I change layout, the caps lock status resets to off.
I seldom write in caps lock, so this is just a minor annoyance for me, but I guess it wasn't supposed to act this way.

I am using standard Unity.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

I have the packages form the PPA (gnome-control-center 1:3.8.5-0ubuntu1~saucy1)(gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1). Ubuntu Gnome, Gnome-shell, gdm.

1) Basically it works for me with Alt+ShiftL to switch layouts, and Menu key as Compose.
2) My preferred setup (shift + shift) can be selected in System Settings -> Keyborad -> Shortcuts Tab -> Typing group but it doesn't work (It says Shift + Shift R instead of Shift L + Shift R --- going back to Alt+Shift L do work).
3) There is a strange entry that is called "Modifiers-only switch layout" that seems to do nothing.

I have no System Settings -> Text Entry in my System Settings... is this normal being a Ubuntu GNOME installation or I have some package missing?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Dmitriy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-control-center into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1 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!

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello, Brian!
It seems we need a comprehensive test plan. For example, for now Ctrl+Shift broke all shortcuts, which start from Ctrl+Shift+.

I prepared a simple Google Docs table with the results of testing main layout switching hotkeys for today version of packages.
It's available here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing#gid=0.
I think it may be useful for William Hua and other bug-fixers. What do you think about this?

[David (david.regev)]

Norbert, could you also add Alt+Alt to that table? That combination also used to be available in the layout-switch dialogue. Thanks.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Norbert: thanks for the work, we should stop dumping all the issues in that bug and use different reports for different issues, you can use tags to build a list of the bugs for that topic if you want to do that

[n0dwis (n0dwis-u)]

I tested gnome-control-center from last update from -proposed repo. Version 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1 amd64.
After restart xorg and reassign keys combination (Alt+Shift) switching worked. But some hotkeys doesn't work on not english layout. For example launch terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), Intellij idea hotkeys doesn't work when acitve russian layout. Hotkeys in firefox works fine.

Anyway thank you for your work!

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Sebastien
Thank you for great idea!
As a start point I created two tags: "keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys" for hotkeys ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/+bugs?field.tag=keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys )
and "keyboard-layout-switching-related" for bugs related to layout switching ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/+bugs?field.tag=keyboard-layout-switching-related ).

@David
I added all hotkeys, which are listed in "Keyboard Layout Options" under "Key(s) to change layout" of Ubuntu 12.04.3.

@n0dwis
About Ctrl+Alt+T see bug 1226962.

[Станислав (jools333)]

Almost bug fixes , but for example in the application Synapse language does not switch.

[facepalm (roiii)]

This bug seems fixed!

[facepalm (roiii)]

I have updated and all works!

[Felipe Castillo (fcastillo.ec)]

I'm using version 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1 of gnome-control-center installed from the proposed repository and everything seems working. I have tested both Shift keys and works flawlessly.

[Denis Zhdanov (altwazar)]

I can't set "grp:shift_caps_switch CapsLock (to first layout), Shift+CapsLock (to last layout)" in gnome-control-center.
After update I can't set layout switching with setxkbmap or gnome tweaker. Settings replaced after few seconds.

[Peter Chervenski (spookey)]

I installed the latest updates, but the problem remains - I still can't use Control+Shift to switch between layouts. It's always "Disabled".

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Norbert; since sometimes subscribers only receive email about status being changed, please always explain your decisions or they will have to enter Launchpad for every change made.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello, William Hua!

Thank you for your great work on fixing bug 1218322.

It seems that we need a set of rules for adding tag verificiation-done for this bug. And we need a set of rules to mark it as fully fixed.

I already mentioned in bug description that I created a Google Docs table for testing different keyboard shortcuts for changing keyboard layout (it is here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing).

In this document I prepared a list of known hotkeys (some from 'gnome-control-center keyboard' of Ubuntu 12.04.3 with GNOME 3.4.2, some of them were mentioned in comments for bug).

Ubuntu 14.04 will be LTS and will be available in the next 6 month. So users of 12.04 LTS may want to update to it.
I think that the best solution of keyboard layout switching problems will be to emulate "Keyboard Layout Options" (gnome-control-center keyboard in 12.04). Have you ever seen it?

Some of hotkeys, which were mentioned in comments of bug 1218322 are non-standard. They are:
* Ctrl+Space
* Ctrl+Shift+Space
* Shift+Space
* Super+Shift
* Ctrl+Alt+Space
* Alt+Shift+Space
* Ctrl+Super
* Shift+Backspace
* Shift+Ctrl+Alt

The hotkeys which are listed in gnome-control-center of Ubuntu 12.04 and mentioned in comments are:
* Alt+Caps Lock
* Alt+Ctrl
* Alt+Shift
* Alt+Space
* Any Win key (while pressed)
* Both Alt keys together
* Both Ctrl keys together
* Both Shift keys together
* Caps Lock
* Caps Lock (to first layout), Shift+Caps Lock (to last layout)
* Ctrl+Shift
* Menu (has a conflict with right mouse click emulation)
* Shift+Caps Lock

The full list of 12.04 hotkeys are available in gnome-control-center keyboard or in my comment ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1218322/comments/216).
It seems, that current realization of layout switching hotkeys definition in 13.10 make possible to define some of that hotkeys.

I think that bug 1218322 can be marked as fixed only if all hotkeys for layout switching that may be set with current next-source<->previous-source logic:
1. can be set ;
2. can be used in Unity session and in GNOME FlashBack session (with and without effects) and in Ubuntu GNOME ;
3. do not brake other shortcuts (for example, Ctrl+Shift must allow to use Ctrl+Shift+C/V in gnome-terminal, use Ctrl+Shift+arrows for text selecting, etc.).

So we need testers that can verify that all possible hotkeys are working normally. Test results may be written in Google Docs table.

[ZoLToR (zoltor)]

After yesterday ubuntu update I now able to set change keyboard layout shortcut to Ctrl+Shift. But after I did that - other hotkeys with this combination exists stop working (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+V in gnome terminal or Ctrl+Shift+N in nautilus) - point 3 from comment #301
>_<
Is any way to fix that?
p.s. Sorry for my english.

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

Hi

I'm still cant get to work keyboard layout switch
After update to 13.10 worked only via manual switch on top bar, but after several updates it stopped to work complitely
Any suggestion? Probably I have to reset settings or reinstall a package

Also at startup I've getting gnome-settings-daemon crash

[myg (nidinnidin)]

Hi all,

Even though the core combinations are possible to assign (ctrl + arl, ctrl + shift, etc), it is however impossible to assign both SHIFT as a switcher. When I'm trying to assign them by pressing two shifts at the same time, "shift R" only appears on screen.
Can anybody suggest me on what have I to do to make SHIFT + SHIFT work?

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello, myg (nidinnidin) !
As you can read from my table - it is possible to set Shift+Shift only from GNOME FlashBack session. You can install it by installing gnome-panel package in Ubuntu 13.10, then logout and login to GNOME FlashBack session.
I hope this helps.

[Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)]

I have too many questions about this new "Text Entry" keyboard switcher in Ubuntu 13.10

1. How to set several different combinations for one action ("Switch to next source")? I want use "CapsLock" and "R_Ctrl + R_Shift" and "L_Alt + Space". How I can do this now? New hotkeys selection method lets me set only one hotkey combination per action.

2. When I set new hotkey combination for action "Switch to next source" and press R_Ctrl+R_Shift how you can correctly determine what actualy I mean:
"R_Ctrl+R_Shift" or "R_Ctrl+Any_Shift" or "Any_Ctrl+R_Shift" or "Any_Ctrl+Any_Shift"
Because it is different combinations.
It's impossible to determine it correctly with new hotkeys input method.

How to solve these two problems?
Please return checkboxes for keyboard language switching hotkeys (like in Ubuntu 12.04) and I will be able to select manually one or more combinations for action "Switch to next source":
[v] L_Alt + Space
[ ] R_Alt + Sapce
[v] CapsLock
[ ] L_Ctrl + L_Shift
[ ] L_Ctrl + R_Shift
[ ] R_Ctrl + L_Shift
[v] R_Ctrl + R_Shift
[ ] Any_Ctrl + Any_Shift
[ ] L_Alt + L_Shift
[ ] L_Alt + R_Shift
[ ] R_Alt + L_Shift
[ ] R_Alt + R_Shift
[ ] Any_Alt + Any_Shift
[ ] L_Alt + R_Alt
[ ] L_Ctrl + R_Ctrl
[ ] L_Shift + R_Shift

3. When I set CapsLock for "Switch to next source" action it works fine in system. But in screen lock menu (when I type my password to unlock the screen) CapsLock cannot switch keyboard layout language, in this case it always works like regular CapsLock (upper-case letters).
Other hotkey combinations also doesn't work for keyboard language switch in lock screen window.

4. Keyboard language indicator in the top-right side of unity panel sometimes doesn't change indication when keyboard language switches after pressing hotkeys.

5. Keyboard language indicator in lock screen window sometimes doesn't appear.

Who is developer of this new "Text Entry" switcher in Ubuntu 13.10?
I suppose he is not a multilingual person and he never use multilingual keyboard switching in real life. Because new realization of this feature in Ubuntu is terrible. Stupid bugs in final release it's ridiculous.

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

+1, Mikhail V. Golubev.
I also wonder who is in charge nowadays of such crucial areas as language support in Ubuntu (GNOME, Linux in general). Just for the heck of it, for I don't think these people are capable of remedying what they've destroyed. Simply because they know nothing of what they're doing. The whole design/implementation is so un-Linux it makes me puke.
Judging by this thread it also seems nobody cares anymore - they're all so complacent about their half-baked patches and crutches that barely work...

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev) @Kom-Si (val.komissarov)
Михаил, Валерий, я полностью солидарен с Вами.
Я тоже задавался здесь такими же вопросами (см. например, мой последний комментарий #301, и другие - #216).

Самое страшное, что может произойти - это то, что этот недоделанный ломанный-переломанный-недонастроенный переключатель клавиатуры перейдет в Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (!!!!!) и люди, пользующиеся в Ubuntu 12.04 LTS многоязычным вводом и желающие обновится на новую версию не смогут пользоваться теми комбинациями, к которым они привыкли.

Мысля схожим с Вами образом я уже создал баг-репорт об остутствии задания сочетаний для смены раскладки галочками (как в 12.04) - это bug 1245064. Вся сеть багов о переключении раскладки видна с помощью тегов "keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys" и "keyboard-layout-switching-related" (см. мой комментарий #293). Среди них есть баги о gnome-screensaver и lightdm.
Для систематизации возможностей тестирования создана таблица в Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing). Однако особых движений в сторону ее заполнения нет. Всем 650 людям и ассигнованному похоже все равно.

В защиту Canonical можно сказать, что нынешний вид окна настройки клавиатуры пришел из GNOME >3.4 (он также есть в OpenSUSE и Fedora).

I'm sorry for Russian language comment, наболело.

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

@Norbert (nrbrtx), ну хорошо, Canonical is not the be blamed (at least not for the *whole* mess). But what Canonical DOES to address the problem? IMO very little ATM. Do they have Russian developers on board?
Latin-based developers might just not realize how painful the whole language-switching situation is. They might lack the experience required, because они на эти грабли ещё не наступали... =/

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Kom-Si:

To maintain a respectful atmosphere, please follow the code of conduct - http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/conduct . Bug reports are handled by humans, the majority of whom are volunteers, so please bear this in mind.

The issues are being actively worked on, several SRUs have been made since saucy and others are on the way, it's unfair to say that the issue is being ignored or that the team is doing little. If you want to help getting more fixes in patches/help are welcome as well though

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

@Sebastien:

I tried to refrain from commenting on this aspect, but it indeed made me think a lot. On one hand, I totally agree with you (myself also being a developer/contributor to open source). On the other hand, I share the frustration of many users, and I'm also quite disappointed on how such a complex and crucial bug could be slipped into a release and I share their opinion that the progress is way slower than it should be.

Is there a way you could please point me to documentation/guidelines how such bugs could slip into the distro, how such bugreports and prioritized/handled, what kind of QA process lets a distro ship with such a bug, whether the QA process will be revised to make sure such critical bug can't go into the distro in the future? I'd like to be sure that it's safe for me to stay with Ubuntu, but if there'll be one more release with such a critical bug, I'll just have to look for a different distribution. I'm not trying to offend anyone or criticize anything, but I'd like to know if what Ubuntu is able to offer to me is the best match for what I'm looking for, and right now I'm in serious doubt. In short: are there any *conclusions* drawn from this bug that'll help future Ubuntu releases become better?

I can't help to mention that the application I use the most frequently is gnome-terminal, where Ubuntu ships a quite old version, for exactly one reason: updating to a newer one requires shell work (touching /etc/profile or similar) to keep the convenience feature that new tabs open in the working directory of the current tab. Something that shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to solve, and even users can do it for themselves, still the distro couldn't yet solve it. I wonder: if such a trivial and easily workarounded issue is a blocker for a version update of gnome-terminal, how come that totally breaking the keyboard wasn't a blocker for the update of those components???

[Lockal (lockal)]

Everything was ok with keyboard in 13.04, but the current state of 13.10 detracts thousands of users (all web-forums and linux-related blogs in russian have been flooded with all these keyboard problems). Keyboard layouts are utterly broken for users with non-latin layouts. When package can't serve its main purpose the importance should be set to "Critical", not to "High". Also, can someone explain why we can't simply downgrade gnome-settings-daemon package in repositories?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could the comments about how annoying that bug is stop now? That has been acknowleged and is being worked on, adding noise to the bug report just makes harder to get the useful informations from it to work on the issue. Downgrading is not an option since the changes impact other components (gnome-settings-daemon, gnome-control-center, gnome-shell, indicator, etc)

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

@Sebastien Bacher: complaints *will* continue because many readers of this thread feel that the team does not realize how serious the situation is. In the current release the language layout handling mechanism is broken. Completely. Irreversibly. God knows how long it will take the team to build a new one. I personally am very pessimistic in this respect.
And you say downgrading is not an option. For many of us it simply means 'good-bye, Ubuntu'. For the time being I'm sticking with 13.04 which ain't a piece of cake, either. Come April, I might have to ditch all my Ubuntu expertise and go look elsewhere, and learn something new as if I haven't learnt enough...
The bug is not "annoying" as you put it; @Lockal is quite right: the bug is *Critical* big time, alarmingly so since it crept into release.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Kom-Si: could you please stop those overstatement, that's not helping your case nor giving you any credibility. You can repeat that the bug is not rightly considered or worked, that's not making that statement true. You can also keep repeating it's a stopper, but reality is that there is lot of workaround for it (just use another keybinding if you are trying to one that's not resolved yet).

You are also welcome to stay on LTS versions, or to not upgrade just after release, if you don't want to be an early tester of new versions

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Norbert: could you please stop changing the tag without comment?

 The SRU is not supposed to be perfect or to fix all issues, it's an improvement over the previous version though and there is no reason to not take a partial fix and improve the situation for some users.

 Did you find regressions in the current SRU? If so could you give some details on those?

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@All: I think that we all should try to cool down on this bug. It's a serious one, developers are on it, it's not easy to fix and it's impossible to revert to old system (unfortunately).

The SRUs are trying to fix it in a incremental manner; I think that all these changes of tag come from not having clear the procedure for a partial fix. There are two way of seeing it:

1) the partial fix should be tagged with verification-done, and after the final acceptance of the SRU in -updates, the bug has to be reopened (switch from Fix released to New) for the rest of problems, given that the partial fix do not solve completely the bug.

2) the bug has to be marked verification-done only if all the problems are fixed.

@Sebastien, could you please advise (or share a link) on how such a complex bug should be managed? Thanks.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Hello!

I have finished testing of latest packages
gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1,
gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1.

You can view my Google Docs table.
Here I can summarize the results.

1. For Unity Session:
For all hotkeys non-latin shortcuts are still broken - see bug 1226962 (for example Ctrl+Alt+T does not open gnome-terminal).

* Default Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space in not working at all.
* Alt+Shift works
* Ctrl+Shift works (but Ctrl+Shift+C/V, +arrows is broken - see bug 1246656)
* Shift+Shift works
* Ctrl+Space works
* Ctrl+Shift+Space works
* Shift+Space works
* Super+Shift works
* Ctrl+Alt+Space works
* Alt+Shift+Space works
* Ctrl+Super works
* Shift+Backspace works
* Shift+Ctrl+Alt works
* Alt+CapsLock works, but opens HUD (bug to be posted)
* Alt+Ctrl works
* Alt+Alt works
* Ctrl+Ctrl works
* CapsLock works
* Caps Lock (to first layout), Shift+Caps Lock (to last layout) works
* Caps Lock, Alt+CapsLock works, but opens HUD (bug to be posted)
* Left Ctrl+LeftWin (to first layout), RightCtrl+Menu (to second layout) works
* ScrollLock works
* Shift+CapsLock works

Single keys hotkeys are not working: Alt (opens HUD), Shift, Ctrl, Win (opens HUD). But IMHO they used very seldom as layout switchers.

2. For GNOME FlashBack (with effects)
For all shortcuts non-latin shortcuts are working (at least gnome-terminal open with Ctrl+Alt+T).

* Default Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space works.
* Alt+Shift works
* Ctrl+Shift works (but Ctrl+Shift+C/V, +arrows is broken - see bug 1246656)
* Shift+Shift works
* Ctrl+Space works
* Ctrl+Shift+Space works
* Shift+Space does not work (produce message [The shortcut "Shift+Space" cannot be used because it will become impossible to type using this key. Please try with a key such as Control, Alt or Shift at the same time. ])
* Super+Shift works
* Ctrl+Alt+Space works
* Alt+Shift+Space works
* Ctrl+Super works
* Shift+Backspace works
* Shift+Ctrl+Alt works
* Alt+CapsLock works, but type in capitals
* Alt+Ctrl works
* Alt+Alt works
* Ctrl+Ctrl works
* CapsLock works
* Caps Lock (to first layout), Shift+Caps Lock (to last layout) works
* Caps Lock, Alt+CapsLock works
* Left Ctrl+LeftWin (to first layout), RightCtrl+Menu (to second layout) works
* ScrollLock works
* Shift+CapsLock works, but type in capitals

Single keys hotkeys are not working: Alt (opens HUD), Shift, Ctrl, Win. But IMHO they used very seldom as layout switchers.

3. For GNOME FlashBack (without effects)
For all hotkeys non-latin shortcuts are still broken - see bug 1226962 (for example Ctrl+Alt+T does not open gnome-terminal).

* Default Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space in not working at all.
* Alt+Shift works
* Ctrl+Shift works (but Ctrl+Shift+C/V, +arrows is broken - see bug 1246656)
* Shift+Shift works
* Ctrl+Space works
* Ctrl+Shift+Space works
* Shift+Space does not work (produce message [The shortcut "Shift+Space" cannot be used because it will become impossible to type using this key. Please try with a key such as Control, Alt or Shift at the same time. ])
* Super+Shift works (but reports this combination as Mod4+Super+Hyper+Shift L)
* Ctrl+Alt+Space works
* Alt+Shift+Space works
* Ctrl+Supe...

[bademux (bademux)]

Importance "High"? Are you kidding? Whole text input is yucked up!

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

The other day I dreamed a blessed hope,
that an ant was climbing over my shorts.

So keep calm, and do easy ♡

[bademux (bademux)]

Tested with gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1, gnome-settings-daemon 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1.
-Can't switch languages in Lock Screen
-CapsLock warning at LockSreen while CapsLock is used as kdb switcher
-Led blink while switching input langs (CapsLock is used as kdb switcher)
-Super + Space doesn't work
-No settings for for CapsLock&Co ( http://i.stack.imgur.com/ACsI1.png )

It is the worst decision to radically update Unity7 along with Unity8\XMir active development...

[Leonid Evdokimov (darkk)]

> Single keys hotkeys are not working: Alt (opens HUD), Shift, Ctrl, Win (opens HUD). But IMHO they used very seldom as layout switchers.
Ctrl was default layout switcher in linux console (bare TTY) for quite a long time, so there may be significant number of users using Ctrl in X too. But I have no numbers to back my words up.

Also, you say that Alt opens HUD. It's not always true due to bug 1237121.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@darkk, @all
For hotkey testing in non-latin layout I created a sheet named "Non-latin shortcuts" in my table (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing).
I added simple shortcuts to it (Ctrl+Alt+T, Ctrl+Shift+C/V in gnome-terminal).
You and/or other users may add more shortcuts to it. Table is writable by anyone with link.

I hope, that my table will help William Hua and other Ubuntu developers to fix and verify hotkey related bugs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-control-center - 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1

---------------
gnome-control-center (1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1) saucy; urgency=low

  [ Iain Lane ]
  * 0001-rfkill-glib-Don-t-use-g_assert_not_reached-in-type_t.patch:
    Cherry-pick 90f49a4d5dd646b8fce10f61a9231db4973a907b from upstream.
    rfkill-glib: Don't use g_assert_not_reached in type_to_string. New kernel
    versions can add new RFKILL types, we should not crash here, just say that
    we don't know what the switch is. (LP: #1209092)

  [ William Hua ]
  * debian/patches/input-sources-text-entry.patch:
    - Next group and double modifier input-source switching (LP: #1218322)
 -- Iain Lane <email address hidden> Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:29:53 +0000

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@janitor, @all
Thank you, William Hua, but bug is not fully fixed (see #318, #323) because of remaining issues:
* default Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space does not work (bug 1245136) - the most important bug (it's default hotkey!!!).
* non-latin shortcuts are broken (see bug 1226962) - the most important bug (affects many multi-layout users),
* shortcuts starting with Ctrl+Shift+ got broken if layout switchin set to Ctrl+Shift (bug 1246656) - the most important bug (affects many multi-layout users).
* some shortcut combinations started with Win or Alt open a HUD - bug with the lowest importance.

For hotkey testing in non-latin layout I created a sheet named "Non-latin shortcuts" in my table (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing).
I added simple shortcuts to it (Ctrl+Alt+T, Ctrl+Shift+C/V in gnome-terminal).
You and/or other users may add more shortcuts to it. Table is writable by anyone with link.

I hope, that my table will help William Hua and other Ubuntu developers to fix and verify hotkey related bugs.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks Norbert for your testing work and your bug reports!

Some comments

> * default Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space does not work (bug 1245136) - the most important bug (it's default hotkey!!!).

That could be bug #1249208. It works here after running ibus-setup and changing the ibus key to something else

> * non-latin shortcuts are broken (see bug 1226962) - the most important bug (affects many multi-layout users),

That bug seems to list several issues. The gsd keybindings, e.g ctrl-alt-L ... did that ever worked?

I installed 13.04 which has the old stack and tried that:
- added a Russian keymap
- binded ctrl-alt-C to the calculator
- changed the active layout to russian
- hit ctrl-alt-c (or ctrl-alt-l)

That doesn't work ... it seems like that's not a new issue/not due to the 13.10 changes

Note that keybindings not working in e.g libreoffice is another issue and due to the GNOME implementation choices, they consider that libreoffice needs to be fixed, see the first comment on https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55585 which explain that. Note sure if others applications hit the same issue (gtk does the correct thing so GTK software are fine, firefox and Qt application seem to not have the issue either)

> * shortcuts starting with Ctrl+Shift+ got broken if layout switchin set to Ctrl+Shift (bug 1246656) - the most important bug (affects many multi-layout users).

Right, that's a annoying one, the only way to fix it is to move the key grabbing in unity, we are working on that but it's technically non trivial and take some time

> * some shortcut combinations started with Win or Alt open a HUD - bug with the lowest importance.

That's not a new issue either

[tealblue (tealblue)]

Thank you all for fixing this problem.
There is no problem for me to switch the shortcut of traditional Chinese input to "control + space".

[Sergey Kochkin (kochkin-sergey)]

It still does not work on login page, but works in others applications.
I use CAPS to switch between different languages (ru-en)

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

My key-combo (left ctrl + caps-lock) can know be training/activating it in settings. However, the key-combo doesn't work all the time and seems to get confused when switching between terminal, gnome screen saver and regular desktop activity.

So

1) after upgrade to 13.10 my key-combo stopped working completely.

2) then after some update my old key-combo started to work in gnome screen saver, terminal and all programs. Yet the indicator never changed state/appearance.

3) then tested using system settings and after that it works partially.

... why bugs like this slip through is beyond me. Canonical has a work force from many countries. Let half of the work-force upgrade continuously over several releases and half install fresh builds. Also add more testing.

[Yuri I. Kornilov (yuqi)]

The "Menu" key is still not working as a layout switch (I'm using the "Menu" keys for this purpose for more than 15 years both in console and XWindow System and it will be hard for me to change this habit).

The "Menu" key is accepted by the 'Text Entry Settings' dialog and displayed there as "Next Group" key, but does not work as a layout switch.

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

Can't use Right Ctrl key.
What is interesting, if hold ctrl and press some letter key - layout changes! If just click - returns to English, regardless which layout was before. The same for Caps Lock key, but, weirdly, Right Shift key works perfectly!!!
WTF guys?
This is not high priority bug, this is EXTREMELY HIGH PRIORITY ANNOYING BUG FOR ALMOST EVERY GNOME SHELL USER!

[==BJ== (iambodin)]

I had used "Grave Accent" as dead key for switching layout in Ubuntu by manually changing X11 config. I did it for several versions of Ubuntu.
Now that "Alt+Shift"has been fixed. I wonder if it's possible to manually config it in Ubuntu 13.10?.

[mpletnyov (mpletnyov)]

Just updated gnome-control-center to 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1, which fixed nothing for me. Quoting myself here: "I used to switch layouts using RightWin key, and now when I try to set the 'switch to next source' to this key it shows just 'Next Group' (means nothing to me), and doesn't work."

[Vlad Glushchuk (vgluschuk)]

I use CapsLock to select English keyboard layout and Shift+CapsLock to select Ukrainian.

If I ever need to type a Latin character I used to hit the CapsLock key and then continue typing. I always hit Shift+CapsLock before typing a Russian or Ukrainian phrase. Keyboard layout cycling never really worked for me.

Since recent update I can use CapsLock key/Shift+CapsLock combo to cycle between layouts but not to select the one I need.

I used setxkbmap as a temporary workaround, but it doesn't work any more (it seems CapsLock key and Shift+CapsLock combo are being processed before reaching the code controlled by setxkbmap). And if I set the Shift+CapsLock combo as layout cycling shortcut, my guake terminal window closes each time I hit the Shift+CapsLock combo which never happened before.

I would like to suggest adding an option to the Layout/Shortcut settings to set a shortcut for each layout selection.

[zsolt.ruszinyák (zsolt-ruszinyak)]

I suspect there are also other related problems here. I always used the "right control (while pressed)" option, but since 13.10 it seems to identify the Right CTRL key the same as Right ALT on my keyboard. Is that normal???

Gnome-tweak-tool does not work here either, nothing I set there takes effect.

[zsolt.ruszinyák (zsolt-ruszinyak)]

Sorry, the Right CTRL thing was unrelated...

The PPA does the job, but obviously it's not the same as the good old options.

Why the hell did they have to remove the button that brought up the advanced keyboard options from the Gnome settings????? I just HATE when they keep removing good old things that worked, just to show people that they are actually doing something...

[To Do (entodoays)]

There is a regression with the fix. Now, if you set the keyboard layout switcher to Alt + Shift, some programs cannot use key combinations like Alt +Shift + Insert. Trying to type this shortcut, changes the keyboard layout and doesn't pass the command to the program.

It happens to me using Freeplane 1.2.23 with Openjdk 7 on an AMD64 Ubuntu 13.10.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi everyone, I uploaded a new update is available from the following PPA. Please try it to see if it improves your situation:

https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/modifier-only-input-switch
(Please note, this is different from the old PPA, you will need to add the new repository. You can use 'sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/1218322' to remove the old one.)

It contains the following packages and versions:

compiz (1:0.9.10+13.10.20131113-0ubuntu1ppa1)
gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.6.1-0ubuntu1ppa2)
unity (7.1.2+13.10.20131113.1-0ubuntu1ppa1)

It attempts to fix some issues under Unity with certain modifier keys, as well as preventing the key combination from getting consumed by a potential application shortcut (LP: #1245473). So you should be able to do Shift+Ctrl+C, Shift+Ctrl+V, etc. in the terminal again. However, it doesn't resolve using the gnome-settings daemon media key shortcuts like Ctrl+Alt+T (LP: #1226962).

Thank you, Norbert, thanks very much for your triaging and the spreadsheet you maintained which was really quite useful for tracking particular problems as this PPA was developed.

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

If the new packages improve the situation for you, you can use apt-mark to hold these packages at these versions.

If the new packages cause a regression for you, use 'sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch' to restore the versions currently in archive.

[William Hua (attente)]

PS Please log out and log back in again after installing.

[Mikola (panamik)]

William, thanks for the update!

With packages from modifier-only-input-switch ppa, I was able to set Alt+Shift as the layout switch, and all key combinations Alt+Shift+<something> now work fine.

Tested on
 - IntelliJ IDEA (Alt+Shift+O to lookup/open a file)
 - JIRA web running in Firefox (Alt+Shift+S to save/submit a comment)

Thanks again for the fix!

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Thank you for your work, William!

I installed packages from ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch and now:
* default Super+Space, Ctrl, Shift works;
* non-latin shortcuts work normally;
*Ctrl+Shift+C/V, in gnome-terminal work too;
in Unity session.

But there is a regression.
I can't switch keyboard layouts in GNOME FlashBack and GNOME FlashBack (without effects)
sessions.
I do rm -rf ~/.* on each update of packages (I have clean Ubuntu 13.10 system only for testing), so I hope that my result is reliable. But this need confirmation from other users. So, please test keyboard layout switching in GNOME sessions.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

William: I understand that the goal is to move key grabbing out of g-s-d to Compiz/Unity, but you should not do this as a stable release update, as it completely breaks things for users of custom GNOME sessions (such as GNOME Flashback).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Dmitry: we already have a patch in g-s-d that makes the grabbing happen only for non-gnome-shell-sessions, we just need to tweak it so the new change only exclude unity session and let the other ones available for compatibility ... we can't support those fallback sessions for ever though so users running gnome-panel under !compiz might need to find another solution (e.g use ibus instead of gsd and the indicator)

[John (vanuan)]

> Hi everyone, I uploaded a new update is available from the following PPA. Please try it to see if it improves your situation:
> https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/modifier-only-input-switch

Instead of doing this, you'd better upgraded an official repository:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1250868

[William Hua (attente)]

Ok, I did as Sebastien suggested and uploaded to the PPA gnome-settings-daemon which will do those changes only under Unity. The build should finish soon.

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

Now indicator switches after patch in #341, but the layout itself - doesnt
any ideas how to fix this?

[William Hua (attente)]

Vladyslav, is gnome-settings-daemon running? Also what version is it?

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

Hi William

hmm. it seems its the one, which is crashed at startup
Tried to run manually and got:

vladest@vladest-Aspire-V3-771:~/Pictures$ gnome-settings-daemon

(gnome-settings-daemon:5755): Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'gnome-settings-daemon' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 190 error_code 8 request_code 140 minor_code 30)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

can it be caused some wrong settings?
if yes, which setting file to kill?

thanks

[William Hua (attente)]

Vladyslav, I'm not sure what caused that unfortunately. Can you list your output of:

apt-cache policy compiz gnome-settings-daemon unity

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

here it is:

vladest@vladest-Aspire-V3-771:~/development/qt5$ apt-cache policy compiz gnome-settings-daemon unity
compiz:
  Installed: 1:0.9.10+13.10.20131113-0ubuntu1ppa1
  Candidate: 1:0.9.10+13.10.20131113-0ubuntu1ppa1
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.9.10+13.10.20131113-0ubuntu1ppa1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/attente/modifier-only-input-switch/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:0.9.10+13.10.20131011-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
gnome-settings-daemon:
  Installed: 3.8.6.1-0ubuntu1ppa2
  Candidate: 3.8.6.1-0ubuntu1ppa2
  Version table:
 *** 3.8.6.1-0ubuntu1ppa2 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/attente/modifier-only-input-switch/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-updates/main amd64 Packages
     3.8.5-0ubuntu10ppa2 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/attente/1218322/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
     3.8.5-0ubuntu9 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
unity:
  Installed: 7.1.2+13.10.20131113.1-0ubuntu1ppa1
  Candidate: 7.1.2+13.10.20131113.1-0ubuntu1ppa1
  Version table:
 *** 7.1.2+13.10.20131113.1-0ubuntu1ppa1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/attente/modifier-only-input-switch/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     7.1.2+13.10.20131014.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
vladest@vladest-Aspire-V3-771:~/development/qt5$

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Vladyslav: did you have that g-s-d issue before updating?

Could you get a gdb backtrace of the issue?
$ sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-0-dbg
$ export GDK_SYNCHRONIZE=1
$ gdb gnome-settings-daemon
(gdb) b gdk_x_error
(gdb) r --replace
... it should stop on the issue
(gdb) bt

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

Hi Sebastien

unfortunately, when I run the deamon under gdb, it hangs:
Reading symbols from /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
(gdb) b gdk_x_error
Function "gdk_x_error" not defined.
Make breakpoint pending on future shared library load? (y or [n]) y
Breakpoint 1 (gdk_x_error) pending.
(gdb) r --replace
Starting program: /usr/bin/gnome-settings-daemon --replace
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
<hangs here>
Breakpoint 1, gdk_x_error (xdisplay=0x648620, error=0x7fffffffd870) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c:268
268 /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c: No such file or directory.

have to kill the gdb from another session

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> unfortunately, when I run the deamon under gdb, it hangs:

hum, seems like we need to be smarter there... does it work if you

$ export GDK_SYNCHRONIZE=1
$ gdb gnome-settings-daemon
(gdb) fb gdk_x_error
(gdb) command
> bt
> c
> end
(gdb) r --replace

(that should print the bt for you when it stops)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

(sorry, change the "fb" by "b")

[Levan Chelidze (levanchelidze)]

I have a probe with ubuntu 13.10 and keyboard when I select other language Like Georgian or Russian the keyboard shortcuts do not work any more I can not use control+C control+V etc... it only works when I have English language selected

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@Levan, your bug is probably https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1226962

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

Sebastien, here what I've got:

Type commands for breakpoint(s) 1, one per line.
End with a line saying just "end".
>bt
>c
>end
(gdb) r --replace
Starting program: /usr/bin/gnome-settings-daemon --replace
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".

Breakpoint 1, gdk_x_error (xdisplay=0x648620, error=0x7fffffffd870) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c:268
268 /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c: No such file or directory.
#0 gdk_x_error (xdisplay=0x648620, error=0x7fffffffd870) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c:268
#1 0x00007ffff590d5ab in _XError () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#2 0x00007ffff590a627 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#3 0x00007ffff590a6d5 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#4 0x00007ffff590b5d0 in _XReply () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#5 0x00007ffff58f2cc4 in _XGetWindowAttributes () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#6 0x00007ffff58f2e31 in XGetWindowAttributes () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#7 0x00007ffff53934d1 in gdk_x11_window_foreign_new_for_display (display=display@entry=0x658030, window=0) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkwindow-x11.c:1200
#8 0x00007ffff5396569 in check_manager_window (x11_screen=0x65e030, notify_changes=notify_changes@entry=0) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/xsettings-client.c:479
#9 0x00007ffff53966c6 in _gdk_x11_xsettings_init (x11_screen=<optimized out>) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/xsettings-client.c:553
#10 0x00007ffff537cacf in _gdk_x11_display_open (display_name=<optimized out>) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkdisplay-x11.c:1407
#11 0x00007ffff537b051 in gdk_x11_display_manager_open_display (manager=0x619a60, name=<optimized out>) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkdisplaymanager-x11.c:53
#12 0x00007ffff704d414 in gtk_init_check (argc=<optimized out>, argv=<optimized out>) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gtk/gtkmain.c:990
#13 0x00000000004036a4 in main ()
[New Thread 0x7fffee76e700 (LWP 2487)]
[New Thread 0x7fffedf6d700 (LWP 2493)]
[New Thread 0x7fffed76c700 (LWP 2494)]
[New Thread 0x7fffdffff700 (LWP 2495)]

Breakpoint 1, gdk_x_error (xdisplay=0x648620, error=0x7fffffffd500) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c:268
268 in /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c
#0 gdk_x_error (xdisplay=0x648620, error=0x7fffffffd500) at /build/buildd/gtk+3.0-3.8.6/./gdk/x11/gdkmain-x11.c:268
#1 0x00007ffff590d5ab in _XError () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#2 0x00007ffff590a627 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#3 0x00007ffff590b6e2 in _XReply () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6
#4 0x00007ffff4e27d29 in XRRQueryOutputProperty () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrandr.so.2
#5 0x00007ffff75b227b in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgnome-desktop-3.so.7
#6 0x00007ffff75b26aa in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgnome-desktop-3.so.7
#7 0x00007ffff6bb773a in g_initable_new_valist () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgio-2.0.so.0
#8 0x00007ffff6bb781c in g_initable_new () fro...

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The errors there seem to be due to the xrand code, which has nothing to do with the keyboard work here ... could you register a new bug?

[Mateusz Stachowski (stachowski-mateusz)]

The packages from the "Modifier-only input switch" PPA work very well in case of Unity.

I've tried all the mentioned test cases and everything worked. The Ctrl + Shift L set as next source shortcut doesn't collide with Terminal shortcuts or Sublime Text 3 or LibreOffice. Also if I have Text Entry settings open and I issue the gsettings command in terminal the shortcut changes in those settings immediately (reflecting that change).

I don't have any other DE's except for Cairo Dock which has it's own session but I didn't check how it works in that.

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

it seems, this is the reason for my crashes: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1227747

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks Vladyslav, that seems an issue with the nvidia binary drivers there... I'm going to comment on the other bug

[Vladyslav Stelmakhovskyi (vladstelmahovsky)]

reinstalled nouveau driver. All issues are gone
Switching now works for me, thanks guys

[Mateusz Stachowski (stachowski-mateusz)]

I've checked how the switching works in Cairo Dock session and unfortunately the shortcut Ctrl + Shift L gets in the way of Terminal.

The shortcuts for copy pasting and opening new tab in Terminal don't work in this case. Instead of that the input source is switched.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Description of problem:
In previous GNOME versions (for example, in 3.4) I was able to set keyboard layout switching to Alt+Shift, Ctrl+Shift, both Shifts, etc. In Mageia 4 I can't set it from gnome-control-center keyboard, or from mcc.
This bug come from GNOME.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-control-center-3.10.2-1.mga4

How reproducible:
Go to gnome-control-center keyboard and try to set Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift as layout switching keys.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to gnome-control-center keyboard (Shortcuts -> Typing)
2. Try to set Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift at 'Switch to next input source'
3. Get 'Disabled' in 'Switch to next input source'.

If you set default Super+Space - it set and work normally, but it is not comfortable and universal for all users.

This bug is very hot in Ubuntu 13.10 too (689 users are affected, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322), but Canonical fixed it.

Reproducible:

Steps to Reproduce:

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Description of problem:
In previous GNOME versions (for example, in 3.4) I was able to set keyboard layout switching to Alt+Shift, Ctrl+Shift, both Shifts, etc. In AltLinux p7 I can't set it from gnome-control-center keyboard.
This bug come from GNOME.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-control-center 3.8.6-alt0.M70P.1

How reproducible:
Go to gnome-control-center keyboard and try to set Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift as layout switching keys.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to gnome-control-center keyboard (Shortcuts -> Typing)
2. Try to set Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift at 'Switch to next input source'
3. Get 'Disabled' in 'Switch to next input source'.

If you set default Super+Space - it set and work normally, but it is not comfortable and universal for all users.

This bug is very hot in Ubuntu 13.10 too (689 users are affected, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322), but Canonical fixed it.

[Nicholas Shatokhin (robotex)]

It is fixed for me. 13.10 fresh install and update.

[Aris-x (aris-x)]

Shortcuts -> Typing -> Modifiers-only switch to next source

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

It works if I set the shortcut from "Shortcuts -> Typing -> Modifiers-only switch to next source".

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Спасибо, Юрий!
Но сочетания Ctrl+Shift+C/V на русской раскладке в терминале и выделение текста по Ctrl+Shift+стрелки не работают если переключение поставлено на привычное Ctrl+Shift. Мне создать новый багрепорт здесь или писать сразу в апстрим?

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

@Nicholas Shatokhin what key(s) do you use to toggle layouts?

[Aris-x (aris-x)]

Это у вас с одной стороны не работает, -- используйте другую. В апстрим написать можете, но проще приспособиться.
Мне, например, правым Ctrl-ом удобно переключаться.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Спасибо! Действительно "другая сторона" работает. Но в апстрим я все-таки написал (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=712667).

Этот (29591) баг можем закрывать. Спасибо!

[Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)]

Unfortunately neither the old ppa, ppa:attente/1218322 nor the new , the modifier-only-input-switch fixes the issue on my laptop.
I tried to use also gsettings, I can finally map the keybindigs to ctrl-shift with the gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source "['<Primary>Shift_L']", however I still can use the Alt+Shift_L combo to change the keyboard.
It changes the keyboard notifier in the panel, however I still type english keys instead of hungarian.

I run ubuntu 13.10 on a Thinkpad T500, I use gnome shell.
I also tried to upgrade my gnome to 3.10, however the problem remained after the upgrade as well, so I reverted these changes and went back to the 3.8.

Do you have any idea what else should I try to get back for the long-ago-used Alt+Shift shortcut?

I am happily providing any needed information for investigation as well.

Thanks and regards,
Krisztian

[Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)]

I mean: >>>> I still can't use the Alt+Shift_L <<<< sorry for the misstypeing

Regards,
Krisztian

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)
For me it works with saucy-proposed updates.
So I have removed all packages from William's ppa's:

$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/1218322
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch

and enabled proposed updates in software-properties-gtk (on Updates tab).
I tried Alt+Shift in sessions: Unity, GNOME FlashBack (with and without effects) and in GNOME Shell.

In modern GNOME (3.8, 3.10) they added special option "Modifiers-only switch to next source". It contain Alt+Shift and others.
I tried gnome-control-center 3.8.5-0ubuntu1~saucy1 from ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3 and 3.10.1-0ubuntu1~saucy2 from ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging - they allow me to set Alt+Shift in "Switch to next/previous input source" (thanks to William Hua patches) and "Modifiers-only switch to next source" (new GNOME option).

[Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)]

@Norbert (nrbrtx)

Thanks for the hint, I tried this way, and the results are the next.
However the switch to next source shows up at the Input Sources config panel, I still cannot use Alt-Shift to change the layout. It still only switches the keyboard indicator in the upper panel to hu, but I still type english characters... if I use the mouse to change the language on the upper corner to hu, I can use hungarian characters... If I again use the keyboard shortcut to change, it does not work again.. So the problem is definitely around the keyboard shortcuts.

Any suggestions are highly welcome, because this is quite annoying for me :)

Thanks and regards,
Krisztian

[Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)]

And an other thing, if I try to modify the Switch-to-next-source shortcut, it still not let me to set <Alt>Shift_L, pressing these buttons makes it to be Disabled. So there is no way to set this on the gui. I can set it again with the gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source "['<Alt>Shift_L']", however it still not works after that as well.

[Daniel Fett (fett-ubuntu)]

Just to clarify, the "while pressed" option is now gone and it is not considered a bug?!

[N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux)]

After the latest updates in Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, it works as it should.

I can set <Alt>+<Shift_L> without problem

and also the indication works. ( bug #1242567)

[Vladimir Rutsky (rutsky-vladimir)]

I heard about problems described in this bug report in Ubuntu 13.10, but when I updated from Ubuntu 13.04 to 13.10 I did't noticed any issues with setting custom layout switching shortcut (alt+shift or ctrl+shift) in System Settings -> Text Enty, so I can confirm that it already fixed in gnome-control-settings.

[Anton Akhmerov (divbpsc)]

I think the current fix is incomplete: single modifier shortcuts such as Alt R still don't work. Checked on the fully up to date 13.10.

[Vladimir Rutsky (rutsky-vladimir)]

I can confirm words of @divbpsc: I can press "right alt" when selecting shortcut to switch layouts and it even will be appeared in configuration dialog as "Alt R", but also it will show up HUD and will not work.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Anton and Vladimir, can you try the PPA in the description to see if that resolves that issue?

[William Hua (attente)]

The underlying issue (with the PPA) might be that the hud shortcut is actually set to <Alt> by default, which is eating the Alt_R modifier. You'll probably have to do:

gsettings set org.compiz.integrated show-hud "['Alt_L']"

Then Alt_R should work for modifier switching...

[William Hua (attente)]

Actually, I seem to be getting some bad behaviour when setting the show-hud key to Alt_L, I think the only good workaround would be to disable it entirely:

gsettings set org.compiz.integrated show-hud "['disabled']"

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

Sounds like a *very* reasonable idea, @William Hua.

[Kelley Castleberry (kelley-castleberry)]

I am completely locked out of typing anything on my laptop Dell D620 4gb
ram 1.66ghz dual core intel processor 500 gb hitachi 7200 rpm hd. I am at
a point to where I think I need to pull my docs/music to another partition
and reformat the GNOME partition. What is most frustrating about this is I
just got my system set up perfect and of course this happens to be betta
and then I get this. Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

On Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Krisztian Poos <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Unfortunately neither the old ppa, ppa:attente/1218322 nor the new , the
> modifier-only-input-switch fixes the issue on my laptop.
> I tried to use also gsettings, I can finally map the keybindigs to
> ctrl-shift with the gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings
> switch-input-source "['<Primary>Shift_L']", however I still can use the
> Alt+Shift_L combo to change the keyboard.
> It changes the keyboard notifier in the panel, however I still type
> english keys instead of hungarian.
>
> I run ubuntu 13.10 on a Thinkpad T500, I use gnome shell.
> I also tried to upgrade my gnome to 3.10, however the problem remained
> after the upgrade as well, so I reverted these changes and went back to the
> 3.8.
>
> Do you have any idea what else should I try to get back for the long-
> ago-used Alt+Shift shortcut?
>
> I am happily providing any needed information for investigation as
> well.
>
> Thanks and regards,
> Krisztian
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to Ubuntu
> GNOME.
> Matching subscriptions: <email address hidden>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322
>
> Title:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc.
>
> Status in Gnome Settings Daemon:
> Invalid
> Status in Ubuntu GNOME:
> Confirmed
> Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” source package in Saucy:
> Triaged
> Status in “gnome-control-center” package in ALT Linux:
> Unknown
> Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Gentoo Linux:
> Unknown
> Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Mandriva:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> ***
> The old PPA, ppa:attente/1218322 is superceded by the following one. You
> can remove the old repository using ppa-purge.
> ***
>
> A PPA which should provide some relief for this issue is available at
> https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/modifier-only-input-switch. To
> install:
>
> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get upgrade
> (log out, log in)
>
> If the packages improve the situation for you, you can pin them using:
>
> sudo apt-mark hold compiz
> sudo apt-mark hold gnome-settings-daemon
> sudo apt-mark hold unity
>
> If the packages don't work for you, you can purge them using:
>
> sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch
>
> === compiz ===
>
> Impact: modifier-only key bindings need to be independent of key-press
> order, there's no support for double tapping two modifier keys of the
> same typ...

[Vladimir Rutsky (rutsky-vladimir)]

William,

I installed all packages from PPA mentioned in description (ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch). Setting "alt+shift" and "ctrl+shift" works as before, and also I'm able to set right alt (Alt R) as layout switching shortcut (with <<gsettings set org.compiz.integrated show-hud "['Alt_L']">>)

But now layout switching is somehow slow: after pressing "Alt R" or "ctrl+shift" I'm able to enter 3-4 characters in old layout before layout actually switches. This is major issue for fast text entering using two layouts.

[Vladimir Rutsky (rutsky-vladimir)]

William,

Also, when I press alt+tab now, hud appers (with <<gsettings set org.compiz.integrated show-hud "['Alt_L']">>).

[iqmaker (iqmaker)]

This is bug another available, all updates installed. Now i can't set any shurtcut for change lang layout.

Linux extpro 3.11.0-13-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 23 07:38:26 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux,
Ubuntu 13.10

[Nicholas Shatokhin (robotex)]

Keyboard not switching when screen was locked. I need use mouse to choose layout for password entering.

[Anton Yakutovich (dr-akulavich)]

I have a bug with locked screen and layout switching too.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Nicholas, @Anton
Guys, we have separate bug report for layout swithing in gnome-screensaver (lock screen) - see bug 1244548. Please add comments to it.

[Vassili Platonov (vassilip)]

William,

yes, I can change layout switching to 'Alt+Shift_L', but each relogin brings me back to 'Shift+Alt_L' (i.e. I must hold Shift then press and release Alt_L) not as expected.

g-c-c 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.2

[Erazor84 (erazor84)]

Same problem for me. every boot my keyboard layout it english. but the only keyboar layout i installed is german. i have to click on "german" to activate it again.

[Spam Trash (spam-trash)]

My observation: I tried to set the shortcut. Didn't work - didn't appear in the dialog. However, after that, I am able to switch the layout, but the icon at the top doesn't reflect that. It stays although typing is affected. Changing the layout manually works too, and the icon reflects it properly then.

I just wonder why is the system changing like this. I wonder why there just can't be a distro which doesn't ever change it's UI dramatically, and just updates the packages. There's either dinosaurs like debian or red hat, or unstable experimental test beds like Fedora or Ubuntu. Or extreme stuff like gentoo.

[Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)]

#318 - Norbert (nrbrtx) wrote on 2013-11-04:
> Alt+Shift works
> Ctrl+Shift works

Actually "Ctrl+Shift" is not only one combination. It includes 9 different combinations:
"Left_Ctrl + Left_Shift"
"Left_Ctrl + Right_Shift"
"Left_Ctrl + Any_Shift"
"Right_Ctrl + Left_Shift"
"Right_Ctrl + Right_Shift"
"Right_Ctrl + Any_Shift"
"Any_Ctrl + Left_Shift"
"Any_Ctrl + Right_Shift"
"Any_Ctrl + Any_Shift"

And if we want to test full functionality we should test all of them.
User should be able to set any of these combinations.

And the same for "Alt+Shift", "Ctrl+Space", "Ctrl+Shift+Space" and any other combination that includes Ctrl or Shift or Alt or Super, because there are two keys of a kind on a keyboard.

[Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)]

#324 - Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2013-11-07:
> This bug was fixed in the package gnome-control-center - 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.1

No, it wasn't!
Why this bug is now marked as "Fix Released"? Actually this bug is not fixed yet.

1) I'm trying to assign combination "Right_Ctrl + Right_Shift" for keyboard language switching.
But always appears string "Shift+Ctrl+Next Group". What does it mean? What is "Next Group"? I realy can't understand this.
And after that "Right_Ctrl + Right_Shift" doesn't work for keyboard language switching.

2) I cannot assign "Any_Ctrl + Any_Shift" or "Any_Alt + Any_Shift". I can choose only Left key or only Right key, and only for second key in combination.

3) Language switching combinations doesn't work in logon screen.

4) Language switching combinations doesn't work in lock screen.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)
Thank you!

>Actually "Ctrl+Shift" is not only one combination. It includes 9 different combinations:...
You can test it by yourself. My Google Docs spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing) is world-wide writable :)
Test hotkeys in which you are interested in and write them down in table and report errors here, please.

For more predictable results you can add new user to your Ubuntu system and test what you need from this new account.
If you do not need modifier-only hotkeys for layout swithcing I recommend to remove all attente' ppas from your system with ppa-purge (because of packages from -updates and -proposed are very usable).

And I totally agree with you about
>3) Language switching combinations doesn't work in logon screen.
>4) Language switching combinations doesn't work in lock screen.
We have separate bug-reports for them (see bug description for the links - they are bug 1228207 and bug 1244548).

[aragaer (aragaer-gmail)]

Switching layout with Caps Lock still doesn't work properly in Ubuntu Gnome. Am I missing something here?

[monomakh (monomakh)]

Switching layout with Caps Lock works, but not properly. It delays about 3 sec to switch.

[Nicholas Shatokhin (robotex)]

When I reboot alt+shift become not work. I need set something else and then set alt+shift again and it will work until next reboot

[Aurel Branzeanu (thunder-riscom)]

Yes, from the Indicator, I can Switch to next source using Alt + Shif L, but it is working only untill the reboot.

Using gnome-control-center (1:3.6.3-0ubuntu45.2), gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.5-0ubuntu11.2)

[inferrna (inferrna)]

Now I have same issue as Nicholas Shatokhin and Aurel Branzeanu, with two additions:
after reboot working "Shift L + Alt" instead of "Alt + Shif L", resetting "Alt + Shif L" -> "Shift L + Alt" -> "Alt + Shif L" fix it.
no way to change keyboard layout inside goldendict popup window.

[zzecool (zzecool)]

I have the same problem Like Nicholas Shatokhin and inferrna , but i noticed that i dont have to reboot , the problem even appears even if you work at the pc as the time goes by..

The shortcut even though it shows "Alt + Shift L" it only works if you press "Shift L + Alt" and the only solution is to reset the text entry to "Alt + Shift L" again .. and again..

[Aurel Branzeanu (thunder-riscom)]

Yes, the problem reappears as the time goes by...

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I'm unable to use Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space on 14.04 with all updates installed.

[zzecool (zzecool)]

I just notice that the problem is even bigger.

If for some reason you changed the default English language and leave the pc idle , eventually after a while the lock screen will hit.

At the lock screen if you try to switch to the English language so you can type your password it doesnt change using the "Alt + Shift L" but it also doesnt work using the trick that we said above "Shift L + Alt" .

So the user is locked out of his pc and the only solution i found is to press Switch user to bring up the lighdm login screen instead , where you can manually select the typing language with the mouse.

Reproduce : Change manually the language to something different that your default , manually lock the pc using the Cog menu ( shortcut Ctrl + Alt + L didnt work for me when i had my second language selected ) try to change the language.

[Станислав (jools333)]

At the lock screen you can click on language icon to switch it.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@zzecool
For lock screen we have separate bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1244548

I can't understand why GNOME developers does not hear us. If we speak about problems related to layout switching - there are many affected users (730 here and about 300 for other bugs).
I tried to write e-mail to gnome-usability mail list with no luck.
So I recently posted a note to Google+ about known problems of modern GNOME products ( https://plus.google.com/104269028367132002623/posts/e8Xmn9fzDVw ). Please leave a comment and/or share this message.

[Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)]

Just some new updates. I have just did a fresh install of 13.10, and tested the layout settings. It definetely does not work on a fresh install. Alt_shift is also not able to be set with gsettings, gsettings only works with the Ctrl_shift toggle. After enabling the proposed updates, it is still not working for the Alt_Shift. It is working for the Ctrl_Shift. The modifier only iput switch ppa is the same. after installing it i still cannot use Alt_Shift, only other shortcuts...
It is really a shame, that gnome developers cannot correct such a bug in so long time...

[Mikola (panamik)]

I am still running with ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch

Without it Alt+Shift+<whatever> key combinations don't work in IntelliJ IDE.

Tried on 13.10 fully up to date (tried freshly installed 13.10 as well as 13.10 upgraded from 13.04 - same results).
Does it mean that the changes from the ppa haven't been merged to 13.10 yet?

[Fabien Basmaison (fabien.basmaison)]

I don’t know if that can be of any help, but after installing packages from the attente repository, I encountered the following problem with Sublime Text: http://www.sublimetext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14926

Also, doing “Ctrl+C” would not work within application like Firebug or Chrome Developer toolbar, while editing some attribute within the DOM tree visualization. Using the trackpad would work.

[Pavel Fischer (rubbiroid)]

I think my issues are related with this bug.
I have two layouts: German and Russian. After logon indicator shows the German layout as expected. But the actual layout is English (US). It can be tested on "Z" and "Y" keys. In German layout they are swapped in comparison to English. After one switching, English layout disappears.
Next issue is the fact, that NumLock status. My default setting is on (in BIOS). After switching NumLock will be disabled.
Additionally, Shift+CapsLock still doesn't work. It works for the one time after setting. After reboot not more.

System: Ubuntu 13.10 x64 update from 13.04.

[Pavel Fischer (rubbiroid)]

Some more info. English layout are still there. It can be see if you press Shif-Meta-Space and the indicator show English,German but no Rissian layout. Here is the screenshot.

[Pavel Fischer (rubbiroid)]

Some more info. English layout are still there. It can be see if you press Shif-Meta-Space and the indicator show English,German but no Russian layout. Here is the screenshot.

[drmanht (dr-manhattan)]

I have the same problem as zzecool (zzecool) - can't switch layout after the computer goes idle. But in my case it's even worse, since I seem to be affected by this bug - https://<email address hidden>/msg276511.html

[Franko Burolo (fburolo)]

This has been solved for quite some time for me with the old attente ppa. Only today, suddenly it sopped working... Maybe because of some upgrade this weekend?
Anyway, I installed the new one, but it still doesn't work with alt+caps lock. :-/

[Dmitry Pashkevich (dipish)]

Something broke for me too! Every time I boot the system, my preferred Alt+Shift doesn't work.

In `Text Entry Settings`, I can still see my Alt+Shift, but it doesn't work. Erasing the shorctut and setting it again doesn't work.

However, the following series of steps makes the shortcut work again:
1) Go to `Keyboard Settings`->Typing->Switch to next source and try to re-set the shortcut from there, see it ignore your keystrokes and get set to `Disabled`.
2) Now go back to `Text Entry Settings` and set Alt+Shift again. After that, the key combo to switch layouts starts working again... until next reboot

Unfortunately, I have to do this on every reboot now. Hope the issue gets fixed soon

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, were any of the packages from the PPA superceded? If you do 'apt-cache policy compiz unity gnome-settings-daemon', do you have the same versions as from https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/modifier-only-input-switch?

[Dmitry Pashkevich (dipish)]

@William I wasn't using your PPA, Alt+Shift for layout switching used to work for me, supposedly from the official repos. But I'll check when I get to my 13.10 machine

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Guys, I'm sorry but it seems that Ubuntu 14.04 installation (from today daily-build) is affected by this bug.

I did I clean install, selected Russian layout. During installation layouts were switched by Alt+Shift, after first boot layout switching is set to Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space and these hotkeys do not work in all sessions - Unity, Gnome FlashBack (Metacity and Compiz).

Please fix it before final Ubuntu 14.04 release.

IMHO. I saw many modern Linux distros and it seems that in GNOME 3.8 Control Center there is an option for modifier only layout switching -
"Shortcuts -> Typing -> Modifiers-only switch to next source"
and it seems that adding g-c-c 3.8 is better than adopt old 3.6 version of g-c-c.

It seems that we need to do all the tests we did in 13.10 again (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing).

[Viktor Mileikovskyi (v-mil)]

Dear members!
The fix from ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch can't unlock alt+shift for me. It causes Shift+Alt+Next Group shortcut. Ctrl+Shift works normally.

Ubuntu upgraded from 13.04 x64 at Lenovo Ideapad Z580A.

With best regards.
Viktor.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

I can confirm the regression. Alt+shift stopped working for me too and re-setting it with gnome-tweak-tool does not work.

[Ubuntu1004 (ybrjkfc)]

Setting CapsLock as keyboard layout switcher works, but keyboard switching with CapsLock doesn't work. Pressing CapsLock switches keyboard layout _indicator_ (in my case En/Ru), but when indicator show Ru I still enter latin characters. If I switch keyboard layout from En to Ru with mouse click on keyboard layout indicator everything works, I enter cyrillic characters.

[Ubuntu1004 (ybrjkfc)]

P.S.
Keyboard switcher behaves like this only in Gnome.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

New behavior. Resetting the whole thing and choosing again Alt+Shift from the control panel works, but the HUD indication of the switch disappeared.
This is the most desperately Heisenbug I ever found.

[Thanos Kyritsis (djart)]

I am experiencing what Dmitry Pashkevich (dipish) describes in comments #414 and #416. Alt+Shift layout switching worked with packages from the official repos. On 1st February 2014, gnome-settings-daemon:amd64 was updated from 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.1 to 3.8.5-0ubuntu11.2 and something broke. After each reboot, I have to reset the "switch to next source" setting in Text Entry Settings in order for Alt+Shift to work again.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I have installed today' newest updates on Ubuntu 14.04 and did some tests in Unity session (see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing) - the results are very positive!

Most of keyboard switching shortcuts works as expected (default Super+Space/Shift+Super+Space, Alt+Shift, Ctrl+Shift, Shift+Shift), non-latin shortcuts works, shortcuts which contain Ctrl+Shift (for example Ctrl+Shift+C/V in gnome-terminal) works if layout switching is set to Ctrl+Shift.

Thank you for updates!
But please do not forget to add them to Gnome FlashBack sessions.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

...and for me, now Alt+Shift switches the indicator but *not* the keyboard. I have to switch the layout with the applet.

Is there anyone with a link on documentation on how the keyboard is managed/configured in Ubuntu (for real)? There is a mix of xkbd, gnome-settings, xmodmap, gnome-tweak, dbus, etc that makes it a multi-dimensional maze.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@ romano-giannetti, please try to set your favourite hotkey combination on Guest session.
If it works as expected you can create new user or remove all hidden folders (make a backup of them first) from ~ of existent user.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@Norbert, I will try with a new user, but about removing all my hidden folders... I imagine this is a joke ;-). I have 20+ years of configurations of my system, ssh keys, applications defaults, qucs and spice models, vim macros, whatever in it (yes, all of this is regularly backed up). I *really* prefer using the applet to switch layouts and waiting for 14.04 or Fedora N+1 than going through a painful piece by piece bisection of all the dot files.

Which are the hidden conf files that will affect keyboard switching behavior? Without this information the rest is voodoo.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@romano-giannetti
>I imagine this is a joke ;-)
I have separate HDD for testing of Ubuntu 14.04 so I can remove any hidden files (format, reinstall and so on). There is nothing for lose for me.
On real system this is a joke, I know :)

>Which are the hidden conf files that will affect keyboard switching behavior? Without this information the rest is voodoo.
I do not know. So I can do +1 on questions from your post 425.

[Viktor Mileikovskyi (v-mil)]

I test the shortcat Alt+Shift.
It works only if shift pressed before alt. Pressing alt - pressing shift - releasing in any order does not work.
With best regards.
Viktor.

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

Not quite so, @Viktor Mileikovskyi (v-mil). It depends on which button you press first when setting the shortcut. I.e. it could be both Shift+Alt L or Alt+Shift L (see screenshot). I have only two input sources: English and Russian. So I set Shift+Alt L for next input and Alt+Shift L for previous. Works like a charm, no matter which I press first. Cheers...

[Aurel Branzeanu (thunder-riscom)]

Alt+Shift working and persistent, at last with yesterday updates:

gnome-control-center (1:3.6.3-0ubuntu50)
gnome-settings-daemon (3.8.6.1-0ubuntu9)
unity-control-center (14.04.3+14.04.20140220.2-0ubuntu1)

It seems that control centers of Gnome and Unity where fighting :)

[Markhor (markhor)]

I confirm that alt-shift does not work even with recent updates. All 6 PC-s belonging to my team demonstrate the same behavior. Setting language switch to alt-shift works only until the first reboot. After the reboot, it does not work. Pressing shift-alt still switches the language, but not alt-shift. That is, you have to press shift first and then alt. Before the first reboot, it does not matter.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Markhor (markhor) and others.
Please specify Ubuntu version in your comments, do you have attente's ppas and do have enabled proposed updates.

In Ubuntu Trusty 14.04 LTS, which we are waiting and testing, all common hotkeys works as expected for now (see my table in comment #324 or test it by yourself in Guest session or new user's session).

[dragonhahney (dragonhahney)]

How can dowload this SW???? http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/k/kde4libs/libnepomukutils4_4.11.3-0ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

I've found one more highly annoying issue regarding layout switch. The active application loses the focus for a short time, causing all sorts of misbehavior depending on the application. See bug 1289495 for details.

[n0dwis (n0dwis-u)]

Everything works fine for me. Even this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/console-setup/+bug/1259643 has being fixed.
Thank you.

[Dmitry Pashkevich (dipish)]

@n0dwis did you use a PPA or everything works fine with the official repo? I still have to re-set the key combos after each reboot (not using additional PPA), then it works.

[Veronika Levkevich (veronika)]

Hi,

I use Ubuntu 13.10 and Gnome Shell 3.8.4, I added ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch, but it doesn't work for me. I can't add Capslock as shortcut. I currently use LeftAlt + RightAlt (which is displayed as Alt+Multikey).

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

Having installed the PPA (new) from the header of this I noticed that *DELETE* button stopped working when I tried to delete *selected* word or phrase. Reproducible in Gedit, LO Writer, other text-input fields.I use a non-standard smallish keyboard, but so far had no problems with it. // Ubuntu 13.04, AMD64 with all the updates.

[Shahar Or (mightyiam)]

Since the Trusty package upgrades from today, selecting a layout doesn't have any effect—it only types English! Even if English isn't present in the "Input sources to use:".

Layout switching through any key combination doesn't switch layout.

I reported #1292412.

[Aurel Branzeanu (thunder-riscom)]

Couldn't confirm it, Shahar - the layouts are switching fine, except on the lock screen - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/1244548/comments/24

[Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)]

Keyboard shortcuts for layout switching do not work in:
a) logon screen (unity greeter);
b) lock screen

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)
>Keyboard shortcuts for layout switching do not work in:
It is known but not fixed issues.
>a) logon screen (unity greeter);
= bug 1245137
>b) lock screen
= bug 1244548

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I made a clean install of Ubuntu 14.04 beta2 ( 4cf9e5ef2c1c362317c90312c76cfda0 *ubuntu-14.04-beta2-desktop-i386.iso).

Tested almost all layout switching shortcuts in my Google Docs table (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing , sheet "!!! Layout switching hotkeys (14.04)").

The result is very positive: all non-exotic usable shortcuts work on Unity and GNOME sessions (Compiz and Metacity).

Thank you, dear Ubuntu developers!

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

How long? I want my Right Ctrl to switch fucking layout!
Looks like every mentioned layout receive it's personal exception, not some universal fix.
Ubuntu 13.10, 14.04
GNOME 3.10, 3.12

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

@Norbert I also clean-installed 14.04 beta 2. Keyboard layout switching doesn't work in lock screen after wake up from suspend (I use Shift+Alt L combination). In 13.10 I still could change the layout using mouse, but in 14.04 that didn't work. As a workaround I pressed 'switch user' and the layout switched also (to default 'En').

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

I just downloaded and installed in a VirtualBox Ubuntu-Gnome 14.04 beta2 32bit.

Out of the box, I changed the "Switch to next sorce" to Alt+Shift L and ""alternative character key" to Right Alt and it works ok.

I DID NOT test the plain Ubuntu-Unity installation.

Color me (momentarily) happy.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Ok, checked more; color me less happy.

Definitely the layout switch does not work after suspend in the lock screen. Hope you all people have password that can be typed in all layouts, otherwise...

Also, with more than two layouts, the switch with the keys happens only between two of them. The third one is accessible only via the applet menu.

Sigh. This is the never ending story.

[Kom-Si (val.komissarov)]

One more rather unpleasant discovery: 'Delete' button stopped working. The button itself is OK, I checked. It's all the new keyboard settings, I guess. Keyboard Layout Chart shows my 'Delete' button as 'Pause'. And there's no way I can change keyboard type (I have a mini, without Num pad).

[Maxim Kuznetsov (mackuzzz)]

Ubuntu 14.04, 64 bit, upgrade from 13.10.

After latest update network manager and hotkeys stopped working but layout is switching correctly! :-) Alt+Shift is working and NumLock indicator does not turn off every time i'm pressing these buttons. But one new thing appeared: when i'm pressing Alt+Shift or Tab buttons, there is a pause, i think, 2 seconds, before layout is switching.

[Maxim Kuznetsov (mackuzzz)]

Today the magick was gone. Layouts are switching fast but Num Lock indicator is turning off when i'm pressing Alt Shift (but Num Lock status still is on). When i'm switching layouts with Tab button Num Lock indicator stays on.

[Роман Донченко (dpb-r)]

I was still affected by this bug because of this bug: <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=726649>. I worked around it by removing one of my xkb grp options. Ubuntu developers might want to backport the patch from that bug, though.

[Oleg Shevelyov (oshevelyov)]

Roman, could you, please, give us some details of how did you exactly worked it around? I've tried most of options suggested in this thread, but the bug is still there. At the moment, I use Alt-Shift-Space combination to change layouts which is very inconvenient.

[Роман Донченко (dpb-r)]

Run "gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources xkb-options". If you see more than one list item that begins with "grp:", that might be it. Use "gsettings set" to remove all of them except one (or just all of them).

[Oleg Shevelyov (oshevelyov)]

The command gives me ['esperanto:qwerty'], nothing similar to "grp:"... Looks like it's not my case. Thank you for explanation, anyway!

[Vladimir Smotesko (the-smok)]

In a freshly installed Ubuntu 13.10 this bug doesn't appear.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 10:11 PM, Роман Донченко <email address hidden> wrote:
> I was still affected by this bug because of this bug:
> <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=726649>. I worked around it
> by removing one of my xkb grp options. Ubuntu developers might want to
> backport the patch from that bug, though.

Thanks, I have filed a merge proposal to cherry-pick your patch:
<https://code.launchpad.net/~mitya57/unity-settings-daemon/bgo726649/+merge/215542>.

[Nir (nirflysher)]

Also apply for Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 (Trusty)

[Dmitry Veltishev (vdmit)]

Yes, same problems in freshly upgraded 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS.
Very-very frustrating.

[Fartash (fartash-faghri)]

I just upgraded to 14.04 and I'm affected by the same bug that was bothering me in 13.10. I use combinations shift+shift-R and shift+shift-L to switch back and forth to 3 layouts. Unfortunately, since 13.10 that this bug was introduced, the difference between left and right combinations is gone. Although I can set them without getting a conflict error, they will act as if both are the same combination. Any other combination I have tested that can be defined either in left or right has the same problem.
I'll be happy to provide any information required.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Successfully upgraded my 12.04 to 14.04.
In 12.04 I had Alt+Shift L for layout swithing, so I set this combination on the first login in 14.04 ('gnome-control-center keyboard' for GNOME FlashBack, 'unity-control-center keyboard') to Alt+Shift L and it works as expected.
So keyboard layout switching is working, so this bug seems to be fixed.

But there are other bugs, which are not fixed:
* bug 1299519 - Unable to rename new folder in GtkFileChooserDialog while changing keyboard layout
    this bug is related to bug 1244090 - Pressing keyboard shortcut to switch keyboard layout causes temporary loss of focus
* bug 1280759 - Unity shortcuts (Super+A/F/M/C/V) do not work on non-latin layout in Trusty - shortcuts are defined via keyboard layout, not the keys
* bug 1226962 - Hotkeys not functional in non-latin keyboard layout in 13.10 and 14.04
    works in Unity, but not in GNOME FlashBack sessions
* bug 1245473 - Binding ctrl+shift, alt+shift, etc for switching keyboard layout makes shortcuts with ctrl+shift, etc not working in any program
     works in Unity, but not in GNOME FlashBack sessions
* bug 1245137 - hotkeys for keyboard layout switching do not work in unity-greeter in Saucy and Trusty
* bug 1244548 - Keyboard shortcut for changing keyboard layout does not work on lock screen
    this bug is fixed for unity-greeter, but is not fixed for gnome-screensaver

[Ana Petkovska (lee-anna-loo)]

I'm using now Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 and I am affected by the bug. It was not existing in Ubuntu 12.04.

In the gnome-control-center I cannot assign Shift+Alt (or any other combination of Shift, Alt, Ctrl) at the options "Switch to next source" and "Switch to previous source". I can assign to the option "Modifiers-only switch to next source", but although it change the layout in the panel, it does not change it effectively and I am still typing with the previous one.

In gnome-tweak-tool, assigning "Switch to another layout" changes "Modifiers-only switch to next source" option from the gnome-control-center and it does not help.

I solved this problem using the command
            gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source "['<Alt>Shift_L']"
that assigned Alt+Shift_L to the option "Switch to next source".

[Oleg Shevelyov (oshevelyov)]

Wow! Ana you're the savior! The command

 gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source "['<Alt>Shift_L']"

worked for me! Thanks a lot.

[Aliaksandr Dzeshchanka (lazy)]

I've switching layout with right Control key since Ubuntu 8.04 and now it stop working. What's wrong?

[DDS (dds-sp)]

Am I the only person who uses just Super key (NOT Super+Space) to switch between layouts? It stoped working in 13.10 and it does not work in 14.04.
Any workarounds?

[Aliaksandr Dzeshchanka (lazy)]

Seems like it's a good time to drop sinking ship of ubuntu and move to some kind of Debian or Gentoo.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@ Aliaksandr
Please stop writing such phrases.
The bug is almost fixed in Ubuntu 14.04 in all sessions.

If you have concrete problems - write here about them, not holy war emotions.
Also you can quietly test your exotic <Right Control> layout switcher in other distros. You can help Ubuntu community to fix this bug too.

----Пользователь Aliaksandr Dzeshchanka написал ----

>Seems like it's a good time to drop sinking ship of ubuntu and move to
>some kind of Debian or Gentoo.
>
>--
>You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
>report.
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322
>
>Title:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc.
>
>Status in Gnome Settings Daemon:
> Invalid
>Status in Ubuntu GNOME:
> Confirmed
>Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
>Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
>Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” source package in Saucy:
> Triaged
>Status in “gnome-control-center” package in ALT Linux:
> Unknown
>Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Baltix:
> Confirmed
>Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Gentoo Linux:
> Invalid
>Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Mandriva:
> Invalid
>
>Bug description:
> ***
> The old PPA, ppa:attente/1218322 is superceded by the following one. You can remove the old repository using ppa-purge.
> ***
>
> A PPA which should provide some relief for this issue is available at
> https://launchpad.net/~attente/+archive/modifier-only-input-switch. To
> install:
>
> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get upgrade
> (log out, log in)
>
> If the packages improve the situation for you, you can pin them using:
>
> sudo apt-mark hold compiz
> sudo apt-mark hold gnome-settings-daemon
> sudo apt-mark hold unity
>
> If the packages don't work for you, you can purge them using:
>
> sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/modifier-only-input-switch
>
> === compiz ===
>
> Impact: modifier-only key bindings need to be independent of key-press
> order, there's no support for double tapping two modifier keys of the
> same type
>
> Test case:
> - add at least two input sources through gnome-control-center's text entry settings
> - use gsettings to set the input switching shortcut to ctrl+left shift: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source "['<Primary>Shift_L']"
> - holding left shift, press and release ctrl
> -> the current input source should change
>
> Regression potential: possible, but highly unlikely, that some key
> bindings may be triggered due to the removal of some code that would
> normally prevent a possible tap from occurring.
>
> === unity ===
>
> Impact: gnome-settings-daemon eats modifier-only shortcuts preventing
> them from propagating down to applications
>
> Test case:
> - open gnome-control-center's text input settings
> - set the next input source key binding to ctrl+left shift
> - open gnome-terminal
> - press ctrl+shift+t
> -> gnome-terminal should open a new tab
>
> Regression potential: the additional input switch key bindings could
> collide with o...

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Dear Ubuntu users and developers!

Recently I have tested RedHat 7 RC, it uses GNOME 3.8 (Gentoo too) in which there are modifiers-only switch to next source - "gnome-control-center keyboard" -> Shortcuts -> Typing -> Modifiers-only switch to next source (here are <Right Shift>, <Left Ctrl>, <Alt+Caps Lock>, <Right Ctrl+Right Shift>, <Ctrl+Shift>, <Caps Lock>, <Right Ctrl>, <Left Shift>, <Shift+Caps Lock>, <Left Ctrl+Left Shift>, <Alt+Shift>, <Left Alt>, <Scroll Lock>, <Alt+Space>, <Left Win>, <Alt+Ctrl>, <Right Win>, <Right Alt>, <Menu>, <Left Alt+Left Shift>).

For better Ubuntu 14.04 user-experience we must support all these shortcuts in all sessions (Unity, GNOME, GNOME FlashBack - Compiz, GNOME FlashBack - Metacity). You can consult with my Google Docs table (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing) for testing, tracking progress and determine which combinations do not work. The document may be bit outdated but you can update it by yourself.

This bug may be marked as fixed only if all hotkeys work on all sessions.

[Robert Valiant (robert-valiant)]

Hey -

So sorry in advance for asking a question:

On Ubuntu 14.04, I can switch to Korean (Hangul) input - it shows "Ko" in the indicator, but the input actually never changes from English.

Am I subscribed to the correct bug?

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

On Ubuntu Gnome 14.04, the bug is still there.

I have no PPA related to gnome or this bug installed.

The "modifier only" option for switching, set to whichever option, will change the keyboard indicated in the panel indicator, but will not really change the keyboard layout.

Setting the "switch to next source" to a normal combination (for example, ctrl+0) works.

I am starting to suspect that there is no one around who really understand what's happening here --- it is so complex.

I confirm that none of the modifier-only combination wrong, trying with the (should be equivalent):

- gnome (or unity) control center, keyboard -> shortcut -> typing
- gnome-tweak-tool -> typing
- gsetting or gconf-editor on org.gnome.desktop.input-sources -> xkb-option

So no joy here. Ended up setting the switch to next source to alt+shift+space which seems to work.

:-(

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi, could those affected by this bug under GNOME Shell and Classic please try this PPA? To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:attente/java-non-latin-shortcuts
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

[Peter Schüller (schueller-p)]

William: I installed your packages, logged out and in of Gnome Classic Flashback (Metacity) on 14.04.

But it does not work. I tried to set ALT+LSHIFT, LCTRL+LSHIFT, LALT+LCTRL, ALTGR+RCTRL, ALTGR+RSHIFT, RCTRL+RSHIFT, LCTRL+ALTGR, LCTRL+RCTRL, LCTRL+RSHIFT.

Is there an easy way to switch back from your packages to the non-ppa packages? I think ALTGR+RCTRL worked before installing your ppa but I want to verify.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Peter, you can try to remove by:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:attente/java-non-latin-shortcuts

and restarting the session. Sorry I should've been more specific: the PPA is meant for the GNOME Classic from the package gnome-shell-extensions, and not either of the GNOME Flashback sessions.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@William, i have a pure Ubuntu Gnome (3) system --- should I test your PPA? Keyboard switch with key-combos is utterly broken on my system, to the point that the only reliable way to obtain it is using the panel indicator --- which, by the way, is often than not out of sync with the real keymap.

[William Hua (attente)]

Romano, I think you can try it as long as you're not using the flashback sessions. I don't expect it'll fix your indicator syncing problems though.

[Danny Felsteiner (dannyfel)]

Ubuntu 14.04 Gnome 3.10

I have 3 layouts, can't switch between them, not with shortcuts and not with choosing the language in the indicator. Sometimes it works to switch between two layouts, sometimes not. This is a terrible bug for people using multiple layouts on a daily work basis.

Unfortunately have decided to revert back to 12.04 until this is confirmed to be fixed.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Yes, I can confirm that with more than 2 layouts the thing is even more broken.

I tried to get a shot to understand better what it's happening, but I suspect that the thing is **really** complex and we have a lot of interacting modules and things that (I suspect) no one really grasp --- the dconf thing, the IBus thing, etc.

I feel really represented by the Steve Taylor's quote at the top of http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/html/xkb.html --- go and read it.

At the end, I learned to edit KBD configuration to tailor a personal keyboard so that I can avoid switching. I imagine this is viable for me (just using three latin languages), not for people with more complex need.

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Romano, just curious, so the PPA didn't improve your situation at all?

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@William --- will try again this afternoon; sorry for the delay.

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@William (sorry, got posted too early, a pity launchpad don't let you edit comments). I read wrongly your comment and thought it would have been of no use (I use only latin keyboards --- switch between US intl, US intl AltGr-dead keys, and Spanish), and the name of the PPA is for "non-latin"...

[Peter Schüller (schueller-p)]

I think what is broken is just the program to configure these shortcuts.
Why? Because using workarounds I can configure my X to switch among layouts
when I press ALT+SHIFT. In my setup at least there is no inherent
limitation about the ability of using these special keys for switching.

To give an example of such a workaround in my Gnome Classic Flashback
(Metacity):
* If I right-click on the indicator icon, select "Text Entry Settings..."
then I will get a dialog window where I can define just shortcuts for
"Switch to next source using..." and "Switch to previous source using..."
and in this dialog box I CAN configure ALT+SHIFT. When I close the dialog
afterwards it works just fine, consistently, I can switch.
* In the "system settings" -> "keyboard" -> "shortcuts" dialog I can even
see ALT+SHIFT there, however if I delete this shortcut there is no way to
get it back in that dialog because it will not detect the key. I can always
set the shortcut using "Text Entry Settings".

Perhaps the problem is so trivial just for the case of Gnome Classic
Flashback (Metacity). But in Gnome Classic Flashback (Metacity) in my
opinion the only problem is the GUI in the system settings, and the problem
is that it does not detect the keypress. The dialog even displays this
shortcut correctly if it has been set using another tool, so the shortcut
storage and representation is working, just key press detection for setting
the shortcut is broken.

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 7:09 PM, William Hua <email address hidden>wrote:

> Hi Romano, just curious, so the PPA didn't improve your situation at
> all?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322
>
> Title:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1218322/+subscriptions
>

--
http://www.peterschueller.com/

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

@William: I tested the PPA. Remeber, Ubuntu Gnome 14.04; I have just two keyboard layouts (if you want I can check with three to).

With the PPA:

1. switching to next source works ok if I choose a normal key combo, for example, Super+Space. On pressing the combo, the layout switches, the indicator is synchronized, and I have a nice OSD display indicting the switch. I cannot set this option with modifiers only keys, as expected.

2. Setting "Modifiers only switch to next source" to Alt+Shift does not work. Nothing, no OSD, no switch in the indicator, no switch of layout.

3. Checking more, I discovered that setting "Modifiers only switch to next source" to for example Right-Ctrl + Right Shift or Compose *do* work, and the indicator follow the switch, but there is no OSD display about the switch. Also Left-Alt + Left-shift works, albeit without OSD display.

So basically the combination that doesn't work for me are the ones with plain Alt of Right-Alt involved. Could be because the Right Alt is mapped to AltGr?

In summary, it's clearly a step in the correct direction. Any idea about the OSD display not showing?

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

Could be this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1246272 (and maybe this: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=729423 ) related too?

Seeing the workaround in http://askubuntu.com/questions/459617/keyboard-layout-isnt-kept-upon-reboot I have a feeling that we could have the normal `xsetkeyb` and IBUS fighting?

[William Hua (attente)]

Hi Romano, thanks for testing the PPA. I took the workaround and filed an SRU for it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1318673. For anyone who is affected by this bug under GNOME Shell, please use that bug for SRU testing and verification.

I'm not sure about the bug you linked to, but I had the same experience with the OSD not appearing also. But I have to assume that they go through different code paths in GNOME Shell since modifier-only input switching is a completely separate option in the settings, so maybe it's intentional by design...

[John (vanuan)]

After setting modifier-only-shortcut to "disabled", I can at least change layout to the 3rd language using UI or Ctrl-Space. With modifier-only-shortcut set to something I can't switch layout to the 3rd language at all!

Horrible bug.

[monomakh (monomakh)]

What about delay of switching layout? For example, I use caps lock for switching. If type quickly than some symbols can be in uppercase.
"fdfdАвававfdfdfdfавававfdfdfdавававfdfdfdFвавав "

[Leonid Evdokimov (darkk)]

I confirm Vladimir's words. Moreover, sometimes capslock is permanently turned on instead of layout switching:
gkjgkjgОлпорпорпролпОПОПОПРОПОРплопролпппполпJkghkjghjkghjhg
                    ^ I've not touched shift :)

[Constantine (iamvfx)]

WIll it ever be fixed? :D

[Alexey Manukhin (axxapy)]

Nope =)
Just use setxkbmap. Smth like that:
setxkbmap -layout 'us,ru' -option 'grp:caps_toggle,grp_led:caps'

[Full name (j-launchpad-d)]

The bug was already fixed in 12.04, now the same problems resurface again. I'm holding back several computers from upgrading to 14.04 and looking for an alternate distribution because of this, amongst other issues.

[Dmitry Maruschenko (yojick)]

I've described a workaround to the CapsLock layout switching problem (comments #487-#488 by monomakh and darkk) here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-control-center/+bug/1343327

[Alex_ander (ks-alexandr)]

I just tried it once to turn off the input method ibus and now everything is OK

It work in 14.04 and 14.10 testing

[The-mob (xarilaos-com)]

For feedback...

After upgrade from 12.04 to 14.04 i had the same problem.

I also have the problem described here
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/1247668

I try this solution to fix the problem with NumLock
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/1247668/comments/22

and also fixed this bug with Alt+Shift etc.....

[Kiko (wipkiko)]

Tested on Ubuntu 14.04, works for me with Shift+Alt.
Thank You

[Sergey "Shnatsel" Davidoff (shnatsel)]

Affects elementary OS Freya, bug inherited from Ubuntu 14.04

This is a game-breaker for non-English locales. Makes the OS hardly usable as far as typing goes.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

saucy has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the saucy task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

[Bruce Pieterse (octoquad)]

Possibly fixed in 3.14 ppa according to darkxst

[Bogdan Lisnenko (lem8r)]

Still buggy here. Elementary OS Freya

[wearecursed (xz)]

Gallum ba galilla ma. This is more than anyone can bear, but we will persevere.

[Bruce Pieterse (octoquad)]

This has been fixed in Vivid Vervet (15.04) with the gnome 3.14 packages and should be available later today.

[Mathew Hodson (mhodson)]

Cleaned up the description. You can use the tag keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys to find related bugs.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.tag=keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys

[Cody Garver (codygarver)]

Bug #1357895 has some more information relevant at least to elementary OS Freya

[Jonathan (s-launchppd-y)]

WORKAROUND.

This is just a very dirty workaround that I do not suggest you do. It will render "Geary" useless (but you can choose another app, your call):

1. Step 1:

[code]
echo (setxkbmap -query | grep -q "layout:\s\+us") && setxkbmap il || setxkbmap us > ~/geary
chmod +x ~/geary
sudo cp ~/geary /bin/geary
[/code]
this will override geary.

2. Step 2:
Go to system settings -> keyboard -> shortcuts -> applications.

Set keyboard shortcut for mail (super + shift), ALT-SHIFT doesn't work.

3. Step 3:
Collect underpants.

4. Step 4:
Profit!

[Or Schiro (orschiro)]

I find the recent solution provided by Santiago [1] very disadvantageous. Shift + Space are frequently used keys for normal typewriting. To me it now happens very frequently that I accidentally switch layouts due to my style of writing and use of Shift and Space.

Is someone else having that problem? Can't we use Shift + Ctrl + Space to change keyboard layouts?

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/switchboard-plug-keyboard/+bug/1357895/comments/29

[Santiago (santileortiz)]

Now that I hink of it, you are right, it's commonly used to enter a next line on facebook and stuff like that, luckily the code for switchboard was just merged, and you can get it on the next update, now you can go to Settings>Keyboard>Shortcuts>Universal Access and change the shotcut there.

[Cody Garver (codygarver)]

Tracked by elementary OS @ bug #1357895

[Allan Deamon (rea-aft)]

I can't type Esperanto. The option button that allows me turn on Esperanto Circumflexes is gone! Does Gnome project hates people that speaks Esperanto?

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Guys I'm sorry, but it seems that bug is returned in the newest Ubuntu 15.04 final.
I set Russian and English layouts while installing.

Now I can't use Alt+Shift in GNOME FlashBack session.

Gnome-control-center shows this shortcut as "Shift+Alt+Next Group", but language is switched because of /etc/default/keyboard
(
cat /etc/default/keyboard
# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ru"
XKBVARIANT=","
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"

BACKSPACE="guess"
)
but indicator-keyboard does not react on language change.
It is unbelievable.

[akiyamka (akiyamka)]

The exact same crap, before update everything was ok!

[vadison (vadison)]

I have this bug too in Ubuntu Gnome 15.04.

[Artem (artemb)]

The same at Lubuntu 15.04 vivid , all updates 05.27.2015

[Onime (g-gatenashvili)]

Still have same problem Ubuntu 14.04, Update 01.06.2015

[Yotam Benshalom (benshalom)]

Not working for me on Ubuntu 15.04. This breaks Gnome for me.
gnome-tweak-tool allows me to set alt+shift as a shortcut for layout switching, but it doesn't actually work.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Oleg Moiseichuk (berroll)]

This bug affects my system (Ubuntu 16.04.1 amd64, Gnome Flashback session with Compiz). One-key keyboard layout switchers (I tested Right Alt, Right Super, Right Control) don't work, while two-key switchers work (checked several of them). If I run Unity session, these one-key switchers work properly. Is it a bug of g-s-d, or I should open the bug in gnome-flashback section?

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Got this bug on Ubuntu 16.04 (updated from 12.04). Unable to use Alt+Shift on GNOME Metacity session.
gnome-control-center says that I use "Alt+Shift L" or "Alt+Next Group", but it does not work.

Do you plan to fix this bug?

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I reported new bug #1687466 about GNOME FlashBack sessions.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I reported new bug 1687588 about text blinking on selection with <Ctrl+Shift+arrow> while layout switcher is set to <Ctrl+Shift>.

[Veron Rado (junket)]

I think this is related to my bug 1705522 where "Gnome Tweak Tool/Typing/Miscellaneous compatibility options/Apple Aluminium Keyboard: emulate PC (Print, Scroll Lock Pause, Num Lock)" doesn't work.

Ubuntu 17.04

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

17.10 is affected by this bug. Only gnome-tweak-tool is the solution.

[asdqweasd (asdqweasd)]

Again? Ubuntu 17.10 is affected this time.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

On 2017-11-03 07:21, asdqweasd wrote:
> Again? Ubuntu 17.10 is affected this time.

Try gnome-tweak-tool, as Norbert wrote, "Additional Layout Options".

[Mikhail V. Golubev (mvgolubev)]

> Try gnome-tweak-tool, as Norbert wrote, "Additional Layout Options".

In Wayland (libinput) keyboard key combinations work on key press (not on key release).
So if I set Ctrl+Shift combination for switching layout (changing keyboard language) in "Additional Layout Options", after that I can't use any other Ctrl+Shift+AnyKey combinations. For example a I can't reopen closed tabs in Web-browser (Chrome/Firefox) using Ctrl+Shift+T key combination.

How to change this wayland/libinput behavior?
I want use Ctrl+Shift for swithing keyboard layout and at the same time use Ctrl+Shift+T to re-open closed tabs in web-browser.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Dear Mikhail and all!

I have a discussion on Maillist (https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2017-May/017419.html) about keyboard layout switching. It has no positive results.

I have reported <Ctrl+Shift> interference about as bug 1245473.
For myself I "fixed" this bug by switching to MATE DE on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
I hope to be there until 2021 year.
It is bad, that modern MATE versions have this interference problem (see bug 1720364).

I tried to start a discussion on Maillist ( https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2017-October/017752.html ) about using MATE DE as default desktop on Ubuntu, but they want to stick with GNOME.

Switching to Wayland adds other interference - <Alt+Shift> as layout switcher opens Firefox menu (see bug 1712200).

It's time to test MATE DE on old-good and stable Xorg.

[Sirocco (siroccco)]

4 years and 8 distributions later this bug is affected Ubuntu 17.10 too.

[Igor Zubarev (igor.zubarev)]

Confirm for Ubuntu 17.10

[Vitaliy Romaka (romakav)]

Confirm for Ubuntu 17.10, and 18.04 beta

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Anyone can join the discussion on https://community.ubuntu.com/t/keyboard-layout-switching-problems-and-poll/2876

[attila123 (vangel-attila)]

Hi, I found a way to make the Alt + Shift keyboard switching working in Gnome 3 (tested with 3.28.2).
First examine this current setting:

dconf read /org/gnome/desktop/input-sources/xkb-options

(in my case it was empty)
Then set the appropriate options, e.g.:

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/input-sources/xkb-options "['grp:alt_shift_toggle']"

Now I can switch the keyboard layouts with Alt + Shift. (Earlier I might deleted all the Alt + Shift + * keyboard shortcuts, I am not sure...
It is permanent, should work after logout + login and reboot.

To add the keyboard layouts, press Super key (default) and type/search for "Region & Language" and add them under "Input Sources".

Hope it will help many people! :)

(I was inspired by https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/333368/gnome-3-22-disable-altshift-keyboard-layout-switching but it did the opposite thing.)

[Vadim Nevorotin (malamut)]

18.10, bug is still here! It's a very basic experience - Ubuntu with Gnome3 can't make even such simple basic things work! What can we say about other things, if user can't change keyboard layout in a proper way?

[BlockSettle (blocksettle)]

WORKAROUND on how to use keyboard Ctrl+Shift+/Alf+Shift+ shortcuts with Ctrl+Shift as layout switch.

Order of keys pressed for layout switching is important. So ['<Control>Shift_L'] implies Control pressed first and Shift pressed second. Inverse order won't work. You have to use ['<Shift>Control_L'] for inverse order.

On the other hand application shortcuts are order-independent, so you can use Ctrl+Shift+T or Shift+Ctrl+T in order to open new tab in Gnome Terminal. Once you're using Ctrl+Shift for layout switching it's still possible to use Shift+Ctrl+<whatever> for application shortcuts.

P.S.: Don't set switching keyboard layout with 'Ctrl+Shift' using XKB options. In this case you'll get order-independent layout switching, but all ways to invoke Ctrl+Shift+ shortcts will be broken.

P.P.S.: Take a note values of switch to next/previous input source are actually arrays(lists).
It's possible to set multiple key combinations i.e. I use: ['<Control>Shift_L', '<Shift>Shift_L'] and ['<Control>Shift_R', '<Shift>Shift_R'] respectively.

[Eido Askayo (eido95)]

Confirm that this issue still exists, used Gnome Teaks tool to workaround this issue.

[gdp77 (gdp77)]

Gnome-tweaks no longer possible to install (Ubuntu 19.10).

What a mess... I can't believe this is not fixed...

[Kim Ismenos (kimismenos)]

Issue still exists: Ubuntu 20.04. - Gnome 3.36.1

[braykov (braykov)]

And that is why KDE

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 12:31 Kim Ismenos <email address hidden> wrote:

> Issue still exists: Ubuntu 20.04. - Gnome 3.36.1
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1218322
>
> Title:
> Can't set keyboard layout change to alt+shift, ctrl+shift, etc.
>
> Status in GNOME Settings Daemon:
> Unknown
> Status in Ubuntu Flashback:
> New
> Status in Ubuntu GNOME:
> Fix Released
> Status in Ubuntu GNOME Flashback:
> New
> Status in gnome-control-center package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in gnome-settings-daemon package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in gnome-control-center package in ALT Linux:
> Unknown
> Status in gnome-control-center package in Baltix:
> Confirmed
> Status in gnome-control-center package in Gentoo Linux:
> Unknown
> Status in gnome-control-center package in Mandriva:
> Unknown
>
> Bug description:
> [Impact]
>
> Can't set keyboard layout change to Ctrl+Shift, Caps Lock, Alt+Shift,
> etc. Shift, Caps Lock keys are just ignored in settings.
>
> [Test Case]
>
> - open gnome-control-center's text input settings
> - click on the "next layout key" entry
> - try entering a combination of two modifier keys such as Ctrl+Shift
> -> the UI should reflect the new keys
>
> - add at least two input sources through gnome-control-center's text
> entry
> settings
> - press and release Ctrl+Shift
> -> the current input source should change
>
> [Regression Potential]
>
> That UI was not working before, it should only be an improvement (some
> key combos are not working as expected, that's another issue and
> shouldn't be mixed with this one)
>
> The input switching shortcut might capture other non-modifier
> shortcuts, but users will need to consider this when choosing their
> switching shortcut anyways. For users this bug affects, this
> represents a working solution for a critical bug.
>
> --
>
> Test results for different keyboard layout change hotkeys may be
> viewed and added in the Google Docs table, created by Norbert
> (
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao5e713Ig9g_dEJrX2NRYlpLWWVzSWxsVXU4ck9HYVE&usp=sharing
> ).
>
> You can use the tag keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys to find related
> bugs.
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.tag=keyboard-layout-switching-hotkeys
>
> For using layout switching hotkeys in Unity Greeter, see bug 1245137.
> For using layout switching hotkeys in GNOME lockscreen, see bug 1244548.
> For using layout switching hotkeys in GNOME FlashBack sessions, see bug
> 1687466 (at least <Alt+Shift>).
>
> --
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
> Package: indicator-keyboard 0.0.0+13.10.20130829.1-0ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-2.5-generic 3.11.0-rc5
> Uname: Linux 3.11.0-2-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
> ApportVersion: 2.12.1-0ubuntu2
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Thu Aug 29 14:21:54 2013
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-07-31 (28 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64
> (20130730)
> MarkFor...

[Taras (tiras-dude)]

Kim,

First try this:

Install gnome-tweak-tool (should pull in gnome-tweaks)

Than in the gui:

Tweak tool >> Typing >> Modifiers of input sources switch >> Alt shift.

First time, I was able to bypass this bug by installing Unity desktop (planned on it anyway), and configuring the shortcut there. The settings are transferred to gnome shell settings.

how-to install unity has been detailed here:
https://linuxconfig.org/ubuntu-20-04-unity-desktop

In case you want to keep it:
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/testing-unity-session-in-focal-fossa-20-04/13692

And how to remove it:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/remove-unity-desktop-ubuntu/

But my guess is that in gnome shell it was disabled intentionally as it breaks other shortcuts:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1075604/disabling-altshift-to-switch-keyboard-layouts-in-ubuntu-18-04
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/333368/gnome-3-22-disable-altshift-keyboard-layout-switching

There are also some suggestions for command line config, but I did not try this:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/316998/how-to-change-keyboard-layout-in-gnome-3-from-command-line

[Efthimios Chaskaris (echaskaris)]

Issue appears on 20.04, fresh install

[Vladimir (vovax)]

What the fuck? Can't resolve problem from 2013? Have a fresh install ubuntu 22.04 and cant setup ctrl-alt-etc keyboard layout switch? Need to use tweaks, google, etc.... Ubuntu user friendly?

[Yuri Gor (yuri-horus)]

Fresh 22.04, at first gnome tweaks helped, but then I changed
Settings / Keyboard / Switch input source individually for each window
And now even gnome tweaks doesn't work anymore.
Changing back to "Use the same source for all windows" also doesn't help.

[Lav-7 (lav-7)]

(Ответ для Nikolay Strelkov на комментарий #2)
> Спасибо, Юрий!
> Но сочетания Ctrl+Shift+C/V на русской раскладке в терминале и выделение
> текста по Ctrl+Shift+стрелки не работают если переключение поставлено на
> привычное Ctrl+Shift. Мне создать новый багрепорт здесь или писать сразу в
> апстрим?
Есть задача и патч, исправляющий поведение (делает переключение раскладки при _отжатии_ клавиш):
https://bugzilla.altlinux.org/34900
Также эта проблема не актуальна для wayland.