Re: My Alt keys don't work!
I guess there's no software way around my problem (my built-in keyboard has a stuck Alt key so I had to disable it with Xmodmap, but that also disabled the Alt key on the external keyboard because it has the same key code). I tried remapping various keys on the external keyboard to Alt: Caps Lock, Alt Gr, Left Control, but none of them quite worked. The old-school keyboard doesn't have a handy key for this situaion, like Fn or Win key or the built-in keyboard's 'grab' keys. I think its due to the old IBM keyboard hardware, but it seems that certain keys such as Caps Lock cannot be held down and used as a modifier in quite the way that Alt is used, and certain keys cannot be pressed at the same time as others. In short, it looks like the only way you'll be able to do things like Alt+Tab,Tab,Tab (pressing tab multiple times without releasing alt) or Ctrl+Alt+Tab is by using the actual Alt key. So I fixed it by disassembling the OLPC XO-1 laptop and fixing the stuck Alt key with a bit of electrical tape, following the instructions on the OLPC wiki, so that I no longer need to disable Alt in Xmodmap. It worked almost perfectly, could do with a slightly thicker piece of tape I think. So now I can use my external keyboard happily, although the broken pipe + backslash key still doesn't work, and I haven't gotten round to sorting out the process of switching between the two different keyboard layouts at software level when I switch keyboards. Unfortunately when I put the laptop back together the touchpad had stopped working! This is hopefully just a loose connection that I can fix by disassembling and reassembling it again. My cheap screwdrivers are starting to strip some of the screws, so I decided to deal with this another day. On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 07:36:03PM +0100, chombee wrote: > Ok, sticking to fixing my Alt keys for now. First I was wrong, Alt Gr is > working as it should, it allows me to type that | character that is the > third character on its key, and various other characters that are not > labelled on the keys. It does not function as an Alt modifier however > (of the kind that would let me Alt-Tab for example). > > Keycodes from xev: > > Left Alt: 64 > Alt Gr: 108. > > They are the same keycodes for the built-in and the external keyboard. > So that's my first problem. The built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt > key so I have to disable keycode 64. I have to do this even when I'm > using my external keyboard, because the built-in keyboard is still there > pressing Alt by itself. Is there a way to disable keycode 64 or the > built-in keyboard only, or to disable the built-in keyboard entirely > when I'm using the external keyboard? > > If there isn't then I think I'll have to lose my Alt key on the external > keyboard as well and remap something else (Caps Lock seems like the best > candidate on the external keyboard) to act as the Alt key should. > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: My Alt keys don't work!
Ok, sticking to fixing my Alt keys for now. First I was wrong, Alt Gr is working as it should, it allows me to type that | character that is the third character on its key, and various other characters that are not labelled on the keys. It does not function as an Alt modifier however (of the kind that would let me Alt-Tab for example). Keycodes from xev: Left Alt: 64 Alt Gr: 108. They are the same keycodes for the built-in and the external keyboard. So that's my first problem. The built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key so I have to disable keycode 64. I have to do this even when I'm using my external keyboard, because the built-in keyboard is still there pressing Alt by itself. Is there a way to disable keycode 64 or the built-in keyboard only, or to disable the built-in keyboard entirely when I'm using the external keyboard? If there isn't then I think I'll have to lose my Alt key on the external keyboard as well and remap something else (Caps Lock seems like the best candidate on the external keyboard) to act as the Alt key should. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: My Alt keys don't work!
chombee writes: > Could someone help me sort out my keyboard configuration, or send me on > the right track? I've investigated a little but I really don't know what > to do. It's a somewhat tricky configuration. > > 1. I have two keyboards. The built-in one (it's a laptop), and an > external one that I use. Since the keyboards are different no one > configuration will work for both. Is it possible to have different > configs for different keyboards? You can do this with two different files for the xmodmap command. See man xmodmap. >From command line: xmodmap [options . . .] ~/laptop-keyboard or xmodmap [options . . .] ~/other-keyboard To set up these files, you need some information about what keycodes the keys are sending. You can get this with the xev command. > 2. Since the built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key (it presses > itself all the time) I had to disable left alt using an Xmodmap file. > But this also disables left alt on the external keyboard. Is there a way > to disable the key on the built-in only? Same advice as above. [ snip ] This would be a *different* way of setting your keyboard options from using Gnome-->System-->Preferences-->Keyboard. You would be doing manually what the Gnome*Keyboard does semi-automatically. Hope this helps. Hugh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: My Alt keys don't work!
Apologies for sending this twice. I sent this one 'from' the wrong address, I assumed it wouldn't go through so I sent it again from the right address. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
My Alt keys don't work!
Could someone help me sort out my keyboard configuration, or send me on the right track? I've investigated a little but I really don't know what to do. It's a somewhat tricky configuration. 1. I have two keyboards. The built-in one (it's a laptop), and an external one that I use. Since the keyboards are different no one configuration will work for both. Is it possible to have different configs for different keyboards? 2. Since the built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key (it presses itself all the time) I had to disable left alt using an Xmodmap file. But this also disables left alt on the external keyboard. Is there a way to disable the key on the built-in only? 3. Currently I've tried to get my single keyboard config working for the external keyboard, but there are problems. Details follow. I apologise for the length of this but, well, it's complicated and I wanted to give as many relevant details as I could. I'm running Debian testing on an OLPC XO-1 via DebXO, a build of Debian for the XO-1. The XO-1 has a slightly unusual keyboard ofcourse, but the DebXO image comes with a usable configuration for it. My keyboard has the 'stuck alt key' problem where the left alt presses itself all the time making the XO unusable, so I used an Xmodmap file to disable left alt and turn the XO's left 'grab' key into an alt instead: remove mod1 = Alt_L keycode 64 = keycode 115 = Alt_L Meta_L add mod1 = Alt_L This worked. Now I actually use the laptop with an external keyboard, currently a UK-layout IBM Model M. I just plugged this keyboard in (using a USB-PS2 adapter) and it worked, aside from various details of course. The layout was wrong, so I had to press " to get an @ and so on, and of course the Xmodmap unnecessarily disabled the left alt on the external keyboard as well, although Alt Gr seemed to function as an alt key. When I upgraded from debian stable to testing it asked me various questions about my keyboard configuration and the end result was the Alt Gr on the external keyboard stopped functioning as well, and now I have no alt keys! I went into the Gnome keyboard prefs and set the keyboard to 'Generic 102 key (Intl) PC', I could not find IBM Model M in the list of keyboards so I chose this generic one after counting the number of keys (102). I set the layout to UK. Now all the keys seem to work, they do what is shown on the keys themselves, except: * Neither Alt key functions. I used the program xev to find that Alt on the external keyboard is keycode 64 and Alt Gr is 108. Obviously my Xmodmap file is still disabling keycode 64. In the Gnome keyboard shortcuts config tool Alt is recognised as "0x40" and not seen as a modifier key, Alt Gr is not recognised at all. I tried to use Xmodmap to remap Alt Gr to an alt instead of remapping the XO's 'grab' key as before: `keycode 108 = Alt_L Meta_L` but this doesn't work (Alt Gr still does nothing), so I changed my Xmodmap back to as before. * There is a key in the top-left under Esc which has three labelled functions and I can't use the third one (the pipe character). Maybe cause you have to press Alt to get the third one? * There is a key near the bottom-left which is broken pipe and backslash, this key doesn't function at all. So all in all I can't use Alt, pipe or backslash, which makes things fairly difficult, and I'm out of ideas. Thanks in advance for any pointers. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
My Alt keys don't work!
Could someone help me sort out my keyboard configuration, or send me on the right track? I've investigated a little but I really don't know what to do. It's a somewhat tricky configuration. 1. I have two keyboards. The built-in one (it's a laptop), and an external one that I use. Since the keyboards are different no one configuration will work for both. Is it possible to have different configs for different keyboards? 2. Since the built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key (it presses itself all the time) I had to disable left alt using an Xmodmap file. But this also disables left alt on the external keyboard. Is there a way to disable the key on the built-in only? 3. Currently I've tried to get my single keyboard config working for the external keyboard, but there are problems. Details follow. I apologise for the length of this but, well, it's complicated and I wanted to give as many relevant details as I could. I'm running Debian testing on an OLPC XO-1 via DebXO, a build of Debian for the XO-1. The XO-1 has a slightly unusual keyboard ofcourse, but the DebXO image comes with a usable configuration for it. My keyboard has the 'stuck alt key' problem where the left alt presses itself all the time making the XO unusable, so I used an Xmodmap file to disable left alt and turn the XO's left 'grab' key into an alt instead: remove mod1 = Alt_L keycode 64 = keycode 115 = Alt_L Meta_L add mod1 = Alt_L This worked. Now I actually use the laptop with an external keyboard, currently a UK-layout IBM Model M. I just plugged this keyboard in (using a USB-PS2 adapter) and it worked, aside from various details of course. The layout was wrong, so I had to press " to get an @ and so on, and of course the Xmodmap unnecessarily disabled the left alt on the external keyboard as well, although Alt Gr seemed to function as an alt key. When I upgraded from debian stable to testing it asked me various questions about my keyboard configuration and the end result was the Alt Gr on the external keyboard stopped functioning as well, and now I have no alt keys! I went into the Gnome keyboard prefs and set the keyboard to 'Generic 102 key (Intl) PC', I could not find IBM Model M in the list of keyboards so I chose this generic one after counting the number of keys (102). I set the layout to UK. Now all the keys seem to work, they do what is shown on the keys themselves, except: * Neither Alt key functions. I used the program xev to find that Alt on the external keyboard is keycode 64 and Alt Gr is 108. Obviously my Xmodmap file is still disabling keycode 64. In the Gnome keyboard shortcuts config tool Alt is recognised as "0x40" and not seen as a modifier key, Alt Gr is not recognised at all. I tried to use Xmodmap to remap Alt Gr to an alt instead of remapping the XO's 'grab' key as before: `keycode 108 = Alt_L Meta_L` but this doesn't work (Alt Gr still does nothing), so I changed my Xmodmap back to as before. * There is a key in the top-left under Esc which has three labelled functions and I can't use the third one (the pipe character). Maybe cause you have to press Alt to get the third one? * There is a key near the bottom-left which is broken pipe and backslash, this key doesn't function at all. So all in all I can't use Alt, pipe or backslash, which makes things fairly difficult, and I'm out of ideas. Thanks in advance for any pointers. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
