Ubuntu
xkeyboard-config package

Keyboard layout used in the second place breaks keymap

Bug #1909347 reported by iblue
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xkeyboard-config (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

It's hard to really summarize the issue here. If you use the Neo2 layout somewhere, the keymap becomes garbled in a very specific way (see below). I am not really sure if it affects other keyboard layouts or what happens internally. I have selected gnome-control-center as the affected package, because this is, where it all starts. There are two issues, which are somehow connected.

Reproduction steps (first issue):

1. Open "Region & Language Settings" in gnome-control-center
2. In "Input Sources" use "German (no dead keys)" in the FIRST place and "German (Neo 2)" in the second place (order matters!)
3. Open your favorite text editor
4. Use Super+Alt+Backspace to change to the Neo2 layout
5. Press and hold the Mod4 key (right of Left Shift) and 3.
6. You get a 3, expected would be №.

Reproduction steps (second issue):

1. Go back to the "Region & Language Settings" and now use "German (Neo 2)" in the FIRST place and "German (no dead keys)" in the SECOND place
2. Open Chromium and open any web page (it does not work with any other application)
3. Use Super+Alt+Backspace to change to "German (no dead keys)" layout
4. Press Ctrl+F
5. Instead of the In-Page-Search opening, you go to the search bar, which means that the input is interpreted as Ctrl+E instead of Ctrl+F. If you press Ctrl+I (which is Ctrl+F on Neo2), the search bar opens, which means that even though Neo2 is selected, the old keymap is still somehow active.

Info:

1) Release: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
2) gnome-control-center: Installed: 1:3.36.4-0ubuntu2
3/4) See reproduction steps above

Tags: focal
iblue (iblue)
no longer affects: xkeyboard-config (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 1909347

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Revision history for this message
iblue (iblue) wrote :

Thanks for the help.

I did so. I says: No additional information collected.

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

Thanks for your report.

German (Neo 2) is a very special keyboard layout, and when I add it to my list of input sources it breaks a few things on my other layouts, and as regards Neo 2 I don't have a clue how to make sense of it.

Have you tried to use Neo 2 on other desktop environments but Ubuntu/GNOME? If you have, and see similar issues there, it's probably not related to gnome-control-center, and then you may want to report your findings upstream:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/issues

OTOH, if the unexpected behavior is only seen on Ubuntu/GNOME, this bug report is possibly a reasonable starting point.

affects: gnome-control-center → gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

On 2020-12-28 02:45, Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
> German (Neo 2) is a very special keyboard layout, and when I add it
> to my list of input sources it breaks a few things on my other
> layouts, and as regards Neo 2 I don't have a clue how to make sense
> of it.

I disabled NumLock, and then it didn't behave as weirdly as it did on my first try. On the contrary I was able to reproduce your first issue.

But it would still be valuable to know if the issues are present also on other desktop environments.

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

I have Ubuntu MATE on a VM and could reproduce your first issue there, i.e. it's present only when Neo 2 is not first in the list of keyboard layouts.

Consequently this is probably an xkeyboard-config issue and not specific to gnome-control-center. And the issue is reasonably upstream in nature.

I found this open upstream issue regarding Neo 2:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/issues/14

Can't tell if it's related to your observations. If not I would recommend you to file a new issue upstream. If you do, please post a link to it here for tracking purposes.

affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) → xkeyboard-config (Ubuntu)
Changed in xkeyboard-config (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)
tags: added: focal
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.
Subscribing...

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.