Arch Linux

archilochus

Member

Registered: 2019-02-04

Posts: 4

Plasma: Alt Key not working in shortcuts

Some update in November or December has made my custom shortcuts in KDE Plasma useless. I'm running the latest kernel (4.20.6-arch1-1-ARCH), all packages are up to date. Since I'm running on Apple hardware, I have switched Alt and Win keys. The change is working properly; I use Left Alt as Level_3 switch; when I press Left Win, this is the output I see in xev:

KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    root 0x6e8, subw 0x0, time 1299204, (-1563,159), root:(179,1027),
    state 0x10, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    root 0x6e8, subw 0x0, time 1299388, (-1563,159), root:(179,1027),
    state 0x18, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

The shortcuts for Alt-Tab etc. are correct in the system settings, as reflected in ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc:

Walk Through Windows=Alt+Tab,none,Walk Through Windows

Despite this, no shortcuts involving Alt work. They produce some weird and unexpected results: Alt-Tab brings up the Activities overview. Alt-F1 (assigned to opening the Menu) prints "P"; Alt-ArrowRight prints "C," Alt-ArrowLeft prints "D." These shortcuts used to work until November or December. At first I thought I had changed a setting by mistake, but I have tried everything, and I'm now pretty certain that it's not a hardware problem and not a problem with xorg or Plasma in itself, but some bug in Arch's Plasma package:

1. Only Plasma is affected. In other desktop environments that are installed on this computer (Xfce, Gnome), the Alt key works as intended.

2. All distributions that rely on Arch (Manjaro, Antergos) show the same bug in Plasma and no other desktop environment.

3. Other distributions that have recent Plasma packages (Fedora) do not have this problem.

If I revert the altwin:swap_alt_win configuration, things work normally; but I couldn't work like this for an extended period; my muscle memory gets all confused. It is like Plasma does not acknowledge that Alt and Win are swapped. Anyone have any idea? This makes Plasma pretty useless for me, unfortunately.

archilochus

Member

Registered: 2019-02-04

Posts: 4

Re: Plasma: Alt Key not working in shortcuts

I've had limited success with a workaround: when I put this into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "system-keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
	Option "XkbOptions" "altwin:swap_alt_win,lv3:alt_switch"
EndSection

my Alt-key shortcuts work. But the level 3 switch does not, and when I enable it in system settings, the Alt key shortcuts stop working again. So far, I haven't been able to have both.