control/capslock key swap lost and (almost) no way to recover it

[Barry Warsaw]

Probably not an xorg problem, but anyway, after today's dist-upgrade, my very long standing swap of the control and caps lock keys on my standard Ubuntu desktop got lost. Now capslock actually is capslock and ctrl is actually ctrl, despite a my previous settings swapping them. Unfortunately, it seems like the ability to swap them back has been lost in System Settings, or gnome-control-center{,.real}.

I will have to resort to xmodmap for now, but please restore the ability to swap these two keys and to honor previous such settings.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-8.28-generic 3.13.2
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-8-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Feb 17 13:26:59 2014
DistUpgraded: 2011-12-23 14:39:31,555 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: virtualbox, 4.3.6, 3.13.0-8-generic, x86_64: installed
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV730 XT [Radeon HD 4670] [1002:9490] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:2542]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-07-12 (950 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Alpha amd64 (20110705.1)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Studio XPS 435MT
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-8-generic root=UUID=7ffae0c6-66ea-4bbd-ae3d-f98ddd9603a5 ro
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2011-12-23 (786 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 05/05/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1.1.1
dmi.board.name: 0R849J
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A03
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr1.1.1:bd05/05/2009:svnDellInc.:pnStudioXPS435MT:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0R849J:rvrA03:cvnDellInc.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Studio XPS 435MT
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140214-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.0.1-1ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.0.1-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Mon Feb 17 12:42:57 2014
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.devices:
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 6
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 7
 input Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite KEYBOARD, id 8
 input Yubico Yubico Yubikey II KEYBOARD, id 9
 input Logitech Trackball MOUSE, id 10
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu6
xserver.video_driver: radeon

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

It's worse than that. Several apps are not mapping their menus to the menubar, and several are not inheriting the Ubuntu desktop theme. Examples include most prominantly firefox and chromium.

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

Another symptom: I have Alt+H rebound to minimize window. This has worked forever. Now there's a regression where Alt+H will summon the Help menu. This is even though I have Activate the window menu set to Disabled and Minimize window set to Alt+H. This used to override the menu setting, but this has regressed.

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

Also: my Emacs window geometry defaults are being partially ignored. Second window is being mapped taller than the screen.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1281232

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

It affects a non-essential aspect of the package.

[Chris Hermansen (c-hermansen)]

Yes please, rooting through various /etc and . files to change xmodmap or whatever is definitely a loss of user-friendliness...

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

I'm not sure why this was marked Incomplete, and while I appreciate the pointer to the bios update, I don't think it's relevant. This is really about giving back to the user software remapping of keys and modifiers in a user friendly way. xmodmap can do it all but it's far from user friendly. That the Ubuntu desktop *used* to provide this (likely through Gnome) means that this issue *is* a regression in usability.

I think it's entirely valid to reassign this issue away from xorg to a more appropriate package (whatever that might be), but not to close it as incomplete because of a bios issue. This isn't hardware specific, and it does affect multiple people.

Thanks!

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Barry Warsaw, could you please specify which package precisely was upgraded when this regression occurred?

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

Unfortunately, I can't. IIRC, it was a do-release-upgrade from an earlier version so it was *a lot* of packages.