[SOLVED] How can I disable RAlt as a temporary keyboard layout switch?

crem · 2023-10-13 08:08:35

Hi,

tl;dr

How can I disable RAlt as a temporary keyboard layout switch?

Details:

I'm trying to set up a custom keyboard layout with extended characters, that I want to type using RightAlt+key.
I use two such layouts, one for Russian (where I use RAlt+key to type Belarusian letters), and one for English (where RAlt+key is supposed to type German characters and various typographics).

To do that, I created two files, /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/moo_us and /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/moo_ru.

This is the command I use to set up layouts:

setxkbmap -option grp:switch,grp:caps_toggle,grp_led:caps,lv3:ralt_switch moo_us,moo_ru

Here is my moo_us file:

default partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "basic"
{
	name[Group1] = "English (mooskagh)";
	include "us(basic)"
	key <AB03> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,         degree,          U2103 ] }; // c C ° ℃
	key <AB05> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol, enfilledcircbullet, enopencircbullet ] }; // b B • ◦
	key <AB10> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,       division                 ] }; // / ? ÷
	key <AC01> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,     adiaeresis,     Adiaeresis ] }; // a A ä Ä
	key <AC02> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,         ssharp,          U1E9E ] }; // s S ß ẞ
	key <AC04> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2109 ] }; // f F  ℉
	key <AC06> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,      leftarrow,          U2194 ] }; // h H ← ↔
	key <AC07> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,      downarrow,          U2195 ] }; // j J ↓ ↕
	key <AC08> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,        uparrow                 ] }; // k K ↑
	key <AC09> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,     rightarrow                 ] }; // l L →
	key <AD04> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,        radical,          U221B ] }; // r R √ ∛
	key <AD07> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,     udiaeresis,       NoSymbol ] }; // u U ü
	key <AD08> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,       infinity                 ] }; // i I ∞
	key <AD09> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,     odiaeresis,     Odiaeresis ] }; // o O ö Ö
	key <AE01> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,    onesuperior                 ] }; // 1 ! ¹
	key <AE02> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,    twosuperior,        onehalf ] }; // 2 @ ² ½
	key <AE03> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,  threesuperior,  threequarters ] }; // 3 # ³ ¾
	key <AE04> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2074,     onequarter ] }; // 4 $ ⁴ ¼
	key <AE05> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2075,       onefifth ] }; // 5 % ⁵ ⅕
	key <AE06> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2076,       onesixth ] }; // 6 ^ ⁶ ⅙
	key <AE07> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2077,          U2150 ] }; // 7 & ⁷ ⅐
	key <AE08> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2078,       multiply ] }; // 8 * ⁸ ×
	key <AE09> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2079                 ] }; // 9 ( ⁹
	key <AE10> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2070                 ] }; // 0 ) ⁰
	key <AE11> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol, Armenian_en_dash, Armenian_em_dash ] }; // - _ – —
	key <AE12> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,          U2248,      plusminus ] }; // = + ≈ ±
	key <LSGT> { [          U2610,          U2611,          U2612                 ] }; // ☐ ☑ ☒
	key <TLDE> { [       NoSymbol,       NoSymbol,       notequal, Armenian_section_sign ] }; // ` ~ ≠ §
    include "level3(ralt_switch)"
};

In Russian layout, it works as expected. However, in English layout, holding RAlt temporarily switched layout to Russian instead of working as a level3 shift.
The same configuration used to work in Arch ~one year ago, and still works in Debian.

Could you give me a hint how to disable that RAlt behavior? I couldn't find where it comes from.

Running xev -event keyboard and pressing/releasing RAlt, shows the following:

KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
    root 0x1d9, subw 0x0, time 10581217, (545,579), root:(3428,582),
    state 0x0, keycode 108 (keysym 0xff7e, Mode_switch), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1600001,
    root 0x1d9, subw 0x0, time 10581529, (545,579), root:(3428,582),
    state 0x2000, keycode 108 (keysym 0xfe03, ISO_Level3_Shift), same_screen YES,
    XKeysymToKeycode returns keycode: 92
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

As you can see, KeyPress acts as Mode_switch (that's what I'd like to avoid), and KeyRelease is correctly working as ISO_Level3_Shift.

Thanks!

Last edited by crem (2023-10-13 12:33:43)

crem · 2023-10-13 12:33:29

Quite surprising, but ChatGPT was able to tell the solution immediately.

The problem was in the grp:switch in my setxkbmap command. I removed it, and everything works as I expected.

setxkbmap -option '' -option grp:caps_toggle,grp_led:caps,lv3:ralt_switch moo_us,moo_ru

seth · 2023-10-13 13:04:51

Did ShitGPT also tell you how you came up w/ the idea itfp?

grep grp /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst

crem · 2023-10-13 13:39:42

It didn't, but likely I just copied it somewhere from internet, there are hundreds of sites who seem to copy the command line from one another without fully understanding it (like I did, too):

Examples:
https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/comments/ … ock_in_i3/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/184242/ … simultaneo

Arch Linux

#1 2023-10-13 08:08:35

[SOLVED] How can I disable RAlt as a temporary keyboard layout switch?

#2 2023-10-13 12:33:29

Re: [SOLVED] How can I disable RAlt as a temporary keyboard layout switch?

#3 2023-10-13 13:04:51

Re: [SOLVED] How can I disable RAlt as a temporary keyboard layout switch?

#4 2023-10-13 13:39:42

Re: [SOLVED] How can I disable RAlt as a temporary keyboard layout switch?

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