Keyboard problems

Nuno Miguel dos Santos Baeta nmsb at nola.pt
Mon Apr 18 21:40:10 UTC 2005


Hi!

I've installed Kubuntu 5.04 on an iMac (Rev.A).  All my problems, but 
one, were solved (thank you everybody who helped and/or tried to help :-)

The remaining problem is that I am, still, unable to write the following 
characters on my portuguese keyboard: @, {, [, ], }.

After running dpkg-reconfigure xerver-xorg to solve screen resolution 
and keyboard problems, my xorg.conf keyboard section looked like this.

[Keyboard definition 1]

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
         Driver          "keyboard"
         Option          "CoreKeyboard"
         Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
         Option          "XkbModel"      "macintosh"
         Option          "XkbLayout"     "pt"
EndSection

With this configuration I am unable the write the named characters. 
After reading the Ubuntu FAQ (iBook and @, ...), I extended the keyboard 
section with the following line.

[Keyboard definition 2]

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
         Driver          "keyboard"
         Option          "CoreKeyboard"
         Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
         Option          "XkbModel"      "macintosh"
         Option          "XkbLayout"     "pt"
         Option          "XkbOptions"    "lv3:lwin_switch"
EndSection

I am still unable to write those characters.  I then decided to change 
the keyboard model.

[Keyboard definition 3]

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
         Driver          "keyboard"
         Option          "CoreKeyboard"
         Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
         Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
         Option          "XkbLayout"     "pt"
EndSection

Once more, I'm unable to write the characters, and now, some keys are in 
the wrong positions.  I decided to give one more try, and added one more 
line to the previous keyboard definition.

[Keyboard definition 4]

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
         Driver          "keyboard"
         Option          "CoreKeyboard"
         Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
         Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
         Option          "XkbLayout"     "pt"
         Option          "XkbOptions"    "lv3:lwin_switch"
EndSection

Finally, I'm able to write the characters @, {, [, ], }, but, as in 
keyboard definition 3, some keys are in the wrong positions.

While trying to find out the differences between the keyboards layout, 
for each of the keyboard definitions I executed the command

	xmodmap -pke > _output_file_

where _output_file_ is one of macintosh, macintosh.lv3, pc105, 
pc105.lv3, respectively for keyboard definitions 1, 2, 3, 4.
Then I run diff with the following results.

nmsb at atlantico:~$ diff macintosh macintosh.lv3
108c108
< keycode 115 = Super_L
---
 > keycode 115 = ISO_Level3_Shift

and

nmsb at atlantico:~$ diff pc105 pc105.lv3
108c108
< keycode 115 = Super_L
---
 > keycode 115 = ISO_Level3_Shift

Question:  Why does keyboard definition 4 worked and keyboard definition 
2 didn't work?

After this I run the command

	xmodmap > _output_file_

where _output_file_ is one of xmodmap.macintosh, xmodmap.macintosh.lv3, 
xmodmap.pc105, xmodmap.pc105.lv3, respectively for keyboard definitions 
1, 2, 3, 4.  The resulting diffs are

nmsb at atlantico:~$ diff xmodmap.macintosh xmodmap.macintosh.lv3
9,10c9,10
< mod4        Super_L (0x73)
< mod5        Scroll_Lock (0x77)
---
 > mod4
 > mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x73),  Scroll_Lock (0x77)

and

nmsb at atlantico:~$ diff xmodmap.pc105 xmodmap.pc105.lv3
10c10
< mod5        Mode_switch (0x5d),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)
---
 > mod5        Mode_switch (0x5d),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x71), 
ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)

Now I'm lost!  How did this change happen?  Shouldn't the diff outputs 
be "equal"?  (In other words, shouldn't xodmap.macintosh and 
xmodmap.macintosh.lv3 be different in only one line - mod5?)  Is this a bug?

I know how to solve the keyboard layout problem - use keyboard 
definition 4 and xmodmap to solve the wrong keys position - but this is 
an "ugly" solution.  Any ideias?

Thanks for your help!

-- 
Nuno Miguel dos Santos Baeta
ille nihil dubitat quem nulla scientia dictat




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