third-level keys don't work until after settings are changed in gnome-keyboard-properties

[luca_ing]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

First of all, I've seen lots of similar bug reports, but none exactly like this, so I am reporting as new.

OBSERVATION / REPRODUCTION:

This is from a fresh Karmic alternate install:

I have a German keyboard, which uses AltGr (right Alt key) to access various "unusual" characters, e.g. @,},\ etc.
It was (correctly) determined by the installer to be of layout de-nodeadkeys.

Unfortunately, in GNOME, those third-level keys don't work after booting.
Instead, the system acts as if I hadn't pressed AltGr and returns, e.g., "q" instead of "@"

Once I select a (any) different keyboard model in the GNOME keyboard settings dialog, the keys work - until I reboot or choose a different keyboard layout. Then I will again have to select any keyboard model to get things back to normal.

EXPECTATION:

The keyboard should work correctly out of the box, as it always has before, and *remain* working.

Regards,
Luca

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: de4b6fa73d737a6a085a4b36e8b08aef
CheckboxSystem: 3e1011c343b9b9ef8638a74e010fb43e
Date: Thu Nov 5 11:37:15 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-keyboard-properties
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[luca_ing (luca-ingianni)]

I just noticed the checkbox "Separate settings for each window" (translating from geman here) was checked. I've now unchecked it, we'll see if things stay ok after the next reboot.

The bug remains valid in any case though - the behaviour was wrong out of the box.

Regards
Luca

[Akagi (akagi010)]

I can confirm this bug. Sadly I can also confirm, that luca_ing workaround does not work.

The situation is quiet the same. I have selected a generic PC keyboard with 105 keys, German layout with deactivated accent key.

Regular after reboots the layout is resetted to simply German. Diverse keys like backslash and pipe do not work. Even after a reselection of the layout this does not work. Only a logout/login help.

[Akagi (akagi010)]

Addon: The layout changes even happen while work, maybe after the screensaver has been use.

As workaround I execute setxkbmap and the old layout is back.

[Akagi (akagi010)]

The workaround from

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/401497/comments/30

seems to work.

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

Could you please paste your keyboard settings,

gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

Please try whether it can be reproduced with Ubuntu 10.04.

Ideally we would rather configure the layouts without having to resort to creating and editor the xorg.conf file.
If you need to edit xorg.conf, then that's a workaround and consists a bug to fix.

There have been some reports that gdm would "change" the layout when rebooting, which was affecting the alfa versions of Lucid. I am not familiar with reports that show issues with 9.10 or 10.04.

I'll mark this as incomplete. If you can provide more info (preferably from 10.04), please reopen the report.

[Luca Ingianni (luca-i)]

I fixed this problem somehow, but I can't remember what I did. I should have posted it - I'm very sorry I forgot.
I've performed several updates to Lucid as well as fresh installs of Lucid, and didn't experience any problems.

Thus I doubt I can reproduce this bug. I suggest closing it.

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

Thanks, closing this report.