xkeyboard-config, console-setup, and ubiquity should use Super+Space for switching keyboard layouts

[Norbert]

Super+Space is default combination for switching keyboard layouts in gnome3, unity, Mac OS X, Windows. Thus for consistently, Xorg; console-setup; and ubiquity should also use Super+Space combination for switching keyboard layouts.

reading xkeyboard-config sources and documentations i don't see that xkeyboard-config can support grp:lwin_space and i guess that needs to be the first step to properly support super+space.

Original bug report below:

Recently I installed Ubuntu 13.10 and Ubuntu GNOME 13.10.
I use two keyboard layouts - English and Russian.
So I select them on the corresponding screen of ubiquity setup wizard.

It quietly set the keyboard switching shortcut to Alt+Shift and wrote this setting to /etc/default/keyboard:
# ...
XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ru"
XKBVARIANT=","
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
# ...

On first boot of installed system the small notification pop-up showed that Ibus will use Super+Space for layout switching.

Please fix this configuration inconsistency.

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For other layout switching problems introduced in Ubuntu 13.10 you can see bug 1218322.
----------

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-12.19-generic 3.11.3
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-12-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Oct 21 12:16:58 2013
InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-gnome.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-21 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release i386 (20131017)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Confirmed, the default changed to super-space in gnome-settings-daemon 3.8 ... we might want to go back to use alt-shift by default though

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Ubuntu 14.04.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in installation from trusty daily image (2014-03-16).

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Installed Ubuntu 14.04 final beta (4cf9e5ef2c1c362317c90312c76cfda0 *ubuntu-14.04-beta2-desktop-i386.iso) - bug is still here.
And ubiquity uses Alt+Shift quietly - there is no notes about which key is used to change layout.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Made a clean install of Ubuntu 14.04 from final (!!) iso image.

unity-control-center keyboard indicates that Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space are used for layout switching,
/etc/default/keyboard contains:

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ru"
XKBVARIANT=","
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"

and Alt+Shift switches layouts in terminals (for example Ctrl+Alt+F1) but does not work in Xorg (for example in Unity session).

So the bug is still here. Please fix it on next install media. It may confuse Ubuntu newbies.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Indeed we preseed alt_shift_toggel as the modifier to console-setup. It would be great to make console-setup default to super+space, or in console-setup terms "Logo Key + Space". But i don't see console-setup supporting "Logo Key + Space" combination at the moment (only logo key is supported, which just by itself would conflict with default unity shortcut).

I'll open a bug report against console-setup in debian.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Gnome3, Unity, Mac OS X and Windows default to using "Super+Space" (aka win+space,logo+space, etc) combination to switch keyboard layouts.

I've tried to get "Super+Space" key to work with xkeyboard-config and it doesn't appear to work. (Such that the key-combination to change layouts is consistent everywhere)

xkeyboard-config manpage only offers:
grp:alt_space_toggle Alt+Space
grp:lwin_toggle Left Win
grp:rwin_toggle Right Win

But ideally it is desired to also offer following options:
grp:lwin_space_toggle Left Win + Space
grp:rwin_space_toggle Right Win + Space

Bruteforcing / setting above by chance did not work =)

Can those two options be added?

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Once upstream supports it, and xkeyboard-config supports it, we can modify console-setup and ubiquity to support Super+Space key combos.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Maarten Lankhorst, proposed the following sample patch. Can you please forward it upstream and/or upload into ubuntu? it appears to do what we need/want for at least some languages.

[Bugs-i (bugs-i)]

Created attachment 98299
add grp:win_space_toggle to allow meta keys to switch keyboard layout

I've attached my patch. But I have no clue about xkb-data, so I don't know if it's correct or not. Could this be reviewed?

[Sergey V. Udaltsov (svu)]

Dimitri, would you be able to confirm this patch is ok for you?

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Dimitri, would you be able to confirm this patch is ok for you?

Yes, the proposed patch works great for my use cases.

[Sergey V. Udaltsov (svu)]

fine, thanks, committed to git.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Maarten, can you cherrypick

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/patch/?id=40bc9e68840dd525047186ebb9277bedf9b892da

Into both trusty & unicorn? And i'll handle ubiquity/console-config cases.

[Bugs-i (bugs-i)]

Created attachment 98456
Missing PC_SUPER_LEVEL2 definition.

It looks like the PC_SUPER_LEVEL2 definition is missing from the commit, I've attached it as diff.

[Sergey V. Udaltsov (svu)]

right, thank you!

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Ubuntu 14.10 (installed from Ubuntu 14.10 _Utopic Unicorn_ - Alpha i386 (20140902)).

unity-control-center keyboard indicates that Super+Space and Shift+Super+Space are used for layout switching,
/etc/default/keyboard contains:

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ru"
XKBVARIANT=","
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"

and Alt+Shift switches layouts in terminals (for example Ctrl+Alt+F1) but does not work in Xorg (for example in Unity session).

So the bug is still here. Please fix it on next install media. It may confuse Ubuntu newbies. Please fix it before 14.10 final release.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

It's great that Ubuntu 14.10 MATE beta is not affected by this bug.

[Maarten Lankhorst (mlankhorst)]

xkb-data 2.12 is in utopic, so marking it as fix released

[Maarten Lankhorst (mlankhorst)]

xkeyboard-config patch for trusty

Without the console-setup changes I cannot verify this works correctly, which is why I haven't uploaded it yet..

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Reinstalled Utopic from official beta2 , the bug is still here.
The /etc/default/keyboard looks the same as comment 19 (Unity uses Win+Space, console uses Alt+Shift).

[Maarten Lankhorst (mlankhorst)]

Console-setup still needs fixing for this to work.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Ubuntu Utopic 14.10 final.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Ubuntu 15.04 alpha2.
The /etc/default/keyboard looks the same as comment 19 (Unity uses Win+Space, console uses Alt+Shift).
Please fix it.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Ubuntu 15.04 beta2.
The /etc/default/keyboard looks the same as comment 19 (Unity uses Win+Space, console uses Alt+Shift).
Please fix it.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Please do not comment and continue to reproduce this bug. It has status open, therefore it is known that it is not fixed yet. A developer should upload a patch to fix & close this bug report in the remaining components that it is open against.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Bug exists in Ubuntu 15.04 final.
The /etc/default/keyboard looks the same as comment 19 (Unity uses Win+Space, console uses Alt+Shift).
Please fix it.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

@Norbert nrbrtx -> please stop reproducing and commenting on this bug report. This is bug is not fixed, and has status confirmed, thus everyone knows that this was not fixed yet.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

I'm sorry, John, but bug exists in Ubuntu 15.10 final.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

Got this bug on installation of fresh Ubuntu 17.10. I selected Russian keyboard layout on installation. After installation I got both <Super+Space> and convenient <Alt+Shift> keyboard layout switchers.

Here is my /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"

I like <Alt+Shift> keyboard layout switcher, it is great.