scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

evolnex · 2010-08-02 02:19:40

I had hoped to avoid this but no luck. I wanted to give scrotwm a try. It's installed and it starts, but the "Windows key" (Mod4) doesn't work, so I can't really do anything. I'm using the default scrotwm.conf and the following .xinitrc to start it:

xscreensaver -no-splash &
case $1 in
openbox)
    xcompmgr -c -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55 &
    exec ck-launch-session openbox-session
    ;;
awesome)
    xcompmgr -c -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55 &
    exec ck-launch-session awesome
    ;;
scrotwm)
    exec ck-launch-session scrotwm
    ;;
 *)
    exec ck-launch-session $DEFAULT_SESSION
    ;;
esac

I went plowing through the forum and even stole some other peoples' scrotwm configs to see if I could get it to work. I'm sure it's something I'll be ticked at myself for missing.

eschew · 2010-08-02 04:43:24

Hm. Have you looked at this thread? It seems like a similar issue and appears that the solution somehow had to do with HAL/evdev. Although now that we're slowly moving away from HAL, who knows.

evolnex · 2010-08-02 17:50:41

Yes. I've been using HAL all along.

EDIT: I should be more clear. I have Openbox as well, and the Windows key works there. Tonight I'm going to try configuring scrotwm to use something other than Mod4 as a mod key and see if that works.

Last edited by evolnex (2010-08-02 22:35:13)

evolnex · 2010-08-02 23:01:09

Bah - no dice. Changing the default mod key to Mod1 (which is supposed to be the Alt key) didn't do anything.

If it helps, here is the output of xmodmap:

xmodmap:  up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_R (0x6c),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3      
mod4        Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c),  Mode_switch (0xcb)

evolnex · 2010-08-03 02:49:51

OK - I must be made of fail. I installed wmii and with all the defaults experienced the same behavior (no keys work). Time to do something else now...

eschew · 2010-08-03 19:11:18

Strange. I'm using Alt (Mod1) as my mod key, but I don't appear to have set that in my ~/.scrotwm.conf and /etc/scrotwm.conf still lists Mod4 as the default. Sorry to not be more help--is there anything else you can think of that might be causing the difference in behavior between Openbox and scrotwm?

skanky · 2010-08-03 19:53:10

Have you tried it without the ck-launch-session? I've never started scrotwm or similar with it. Also, FWIW, I don't have hal installed.

evolnex · 2010-08-03 22:01:18

@skanky: I did try that. No dice. I also thought of uninstalling HAL, but I'm in the middle of studying for an important exam so I didn't want to do anything that might cause borkage on my daily driver.

@eschew: I couldn't think of anything, unless Openbox is doing something with keys that I should force to happen when starting scrotwm. Can't think of what it would be though.

skanky · 2010-08-04 08:41:49

Do you have a non-US keyboard?
I have seen some reports of issues with scrotwm and AZERTY, for example.

Okay, here's a few more things to try:

*) Compare the results of xev in scrotwm and openbox

*) Add this to your .xinitrc:

xterm -e "xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap" &
exec scrotwm > $HOME/.xsession-errors 2>&1

You may need an empty .Xmodmap if you don't have one already

*) Check your xorg config(s).

Finally, for hal if you do

pacman -Qi hal

it will tell you if anything requires it.

evolnex · 2010-08-04 17:42:58

Great. I'll try these tonight and let you know.

Also, I re-installed awesome last night after having removed it some time ago, and the Windows key works there, which makes me think there's probably something to be found in your first two suggestions.

skanky · 2010-08-04 20:38:59

If you don't get anywhere with the above, try contacting the developer (he does sometimes post on the scrotwm thread in Desktop) - I've seen this reported elsewhere but no definitive fix, but he may know of one now.

evolnex · 2010-08-04 21:57:57

I managed to figure it out. After taking your suggestion to force a backgrounded xterm to run, I took out the part that reloads .Xmodmap so that it just launched a terminal window. I tested the keys using xev and saw that it not only wasn't recognizing the Windows key, none of the Ctrl, Alt, etc keys were being recognized.

I tried switching off Num Lock and everything worked as expected. Turning it back on prevents the keyboard shortcuts from working (i.e., Win+Shift+Enter doesn't open a terminal with Num Lock on but does with Num Lock off).

Thanks for your help.

skanky · 2010-08-05 08:10:33

That's interesting...just for reference, what keyboard is it?

evolnex · 2010-08-05 18:35:18

The keyboard is a plain Dell 104-key USB keyboard.

skanky · 2010-08-05 19:42:55

Okay thanks. I wonder what Openbox does to fix it?

Arch Linux

#1 2010-08-02 02:19:40

scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#2 2010-08-02 04:43:24

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#3 2010-08-02 17:50:41

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#4 2010-08-02 23:01:09

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#5 2010-08-03 02:49:51

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#6 2010-08-03 19:11:18

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#7 2010-08-03 19:53:10

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#8 2010-08-03 22:01:18

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#9 2010-08-04 08:41:49

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#10 2010-08-04 17:42:58

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#11 2010-08-04 20:38:59

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#12 2010-08-04 21:57:57

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#13 2010-08-05 08:10:33

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#14 2010-08-05 18:35:18

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

#15 2010-08-05 19:42:55

Re: scrotwm - modkey doesn't work

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