Keyboard settings being changed

Mellowbob · 2015-05-20 16:19:02

I'm getting quite frustrated with my keyboard. I have a little one liner in my startup which said:

/usr/bin/setxkbmap -option 'ctrl:nocaps'

And it's worked fine for years. But, lately the setting has started being lost during a session. It takes effect when I log in, but at some point it disappears. The only way I know it's gone is that I start getting ALL CAPS text.

So, I dumped the one liner and modified the /etc/default/keyboard file to do the same thing. Again, this worked great ... but the same problem: the setting is being dumped.

Any ideas?

ToZ · 2015-05-23 19:30:36

I don't have an answer for you, but is the setting being lost randomly? Or is it a result of some action (suspend/resume) or the result of some application starting? Do you have multiple languages/layouts?

Have you tried setting it in the xorg configuration settings (e.g. /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d)? The benefit here might be that if something is resetting X, it might get re-configured properly as well.

Mellowbob · 2015-05-23 19:47:50

ToZ wrote:

I don't have an answer for you, but is the setting being lost randomly? Or is it a result of some action (suspend/resume) or the result of some application starting? Do you have multiple languages/layouts?

Appears to be random. Of course, it's hard to say "opps, caps lock just got enabled at this point". Just that I'll notice it in an editor or even on a terminal.

Just a plain single language, etc. Nothing fancy going on. Matter of fact, it's pretty much like it has been for years. Just with the latest xfce4 and ubuntu 15.04 that I have noticed a problem.

Have you tried setting it in the xorg configuration settings (e.g. /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d)? The benefit here might be that if something is resetting X, it might get re-configured properly as well.

I have no idea. There doesn't appear to be anything in that directory dealing with keyboards. Are you suggesting that I create a set the keyboard file here? Not sure how I'd do that.

Thanks.

ToZ · 2015-05-23 20:06:39

Mellowbob wrote:

Are you suggesting that I create a set the keyboard file here? Not sure how I'd do that.

Something like what is discussed here. Specifically, /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf with the content:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "system-keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        Option "XkbLayout" "us"
        Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
        Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

This file will override X defaults and will be processed every time X configures itself.

Mellowbob · 2015-05-23 21:04:12

Well, that doesn't seem to work at all.

I removed the file /et/default/keyboard (well, restored it to the one without a ctrl:nocaps option), reset stuff with dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration and rebooted. Keycaps works perfectly. Not what we want sad

So, I've no reenabled the startup option /usr/bin/setxkbmap -option 'ctrl:nocaps'. It works, as it always has. Now, I'll do frequent tests to see when the modification goes away.

More info to come smile

Jerry3904 · 2015-05-23 21:11:37

Of course, it's hard to say "opps, caps lock just got enabled at this point".

There is a good package for users in the Debian family that will let you see exactly when that happens: indicator-keylock. It is available as a *.deb here:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/tsbarnes/indic … r-keylock/

We packaged it for Wheezy.

Last edited by Jerry3904 (2015-05-23 21:13:51)

Mellowbob · 2015-05-23 21:39:42

Okay, installed it just now. I have an indicator showing [en]. If I click on that I can get a layout chart, and it shows that the caplock key is, indeed, control-l. We'll just have see if that changes (it has been).

I've checked my crontab entries and those of the system. Nothing in any of these suggesting access to the keyboard settings.

jmax · 2015-07-23 02:49:26

Seeing the same thing. It's not the direct result of any action on my part, as on several occasions, I've locked the screen, then come back later to find that the caps lock key has reset to being a caps lock key while I was gone. It also has happened once in the middle of using emacs (having your control key drop out is particularly annoying for an emacs user); one second I was Ctrl-ing away, and the next I was typing in caps.

So, pretty sure it's something going in in the background.

Will look into the package mentioned above (indicator-keylock) and see if provides any insight.

Last edited by jmax (2015-07-23 02:50:17)

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#1 2015-05-20 16:19:02

Keyboard settings being changed

#2 2015-05-23 19:30:36

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

#3 2015-05-23 19:47:50

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

#4 2015-05-23 20:06:39

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

#5 2015-05-23 21:04:12

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

#6 2015-05-23 21:11:37

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

#7 2015-05-23 21:39:42

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

#8 2015-07-23 02:49:26

Re: Keyboard settings being changed

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