Arch Linux

jni

Member

Registered: 2009-10-30

Posts: 36

[SOLVED] Alt key modifier not working for certain keys

Hmm, yeah nothing like posting on a forum and ensuring that you will look like a fool to have a genius spark within the minute.

It was pytyle. I had ignored it because it stopped working months ago, so I didn't bother to remove it from autostart.sh. Well good (and bad?) news, pytyle works again now! But it breaks every alt-key modifiers that it uses (so I assume alt-r is mapped in pytyle and alt-t isn't).

Well, thanks anyways. I'm leaving this message here in case someone gets the same surprise!

Hi,

I come to you today for I have exhausted all possible answers I could think of!

No, but seriously, my alt key has started to act weird. For example, I can do key combos like Alt-t, but Alt-r won't work. Alt-o works, Alt-c doesn't. Etc etc.

This seems to affect every possible apps. Eclipse is where I would mainly like these combos, but chrome is affected too (for example). Xev seems to pick up on this weird fact too :

Pressing alt-t

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    root 0x297, subw 0x0, time 988262, (62,169), root:(1664,192),
    state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    root 0x297, subw 0x0, time 990043, (62,169), root:(1664,192),
    state 0x8, keycode 28 (keysym 0x74, t), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (74) "t"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (74) "t"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    root 0x297, subw 0x0, time 990147, (62,169), root:(1664,192),
    state 0x8, keycode 28 (keysym 0x74, t), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (74) "t"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    root 0x297, subw 0x0, time 990613, (62,169), root:(1664,192),
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

Pressing alt-r

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    root 0x297, subw 0x0, time 993009, (62,169), root:(1664,192),
    state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

FocusOut event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

FocusOut event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyPointer

FocusIn event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor

KeymapNotify event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x2200001,
    root 0x297, subw 0x0, time 994107, (62,169), root:(1664,192),
    state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

The keys r and t behave as expected on their own or even with the ctrl modifier. It's just the alt modifier which does that.

I have tried changing my x keyboard layout (using the "ca" keyboard), tried to remove .Xmodmap. I've searched in my rc.xml (openbox) config, nothing. I have no .Xdefaults.

It is as if something grabs that input before X (from what I understand), but I can't figure out what it could be. I don't recall installing anything lately, except updates (a bunch).

Using openbox 3.5.2, kernel is 3.13.10-1-ck and Xorg is 1.15.1

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Jni

Last edited by jni (2014-04-16 15:39:22)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] Alt key modifier not working for certain keys

You can keep the bold text, but please remove the yellow highlighter.

When posting configs, code or command output, please use [ code ] tags, not [ quote ] tags https://bbs.archlinux.org/help.php#bbcode

like this

It makes the code more readable and - in case of longer listings - more convenient to scroll through.