Arch Linux

T.J.S.

Member

Registered: 2012-08-14

Posts: 83

Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

Lately* I've been having these weird random switches in the keyboard layout, without me pressing or touching anything by accident. It just switches even if I'm not typing anything, but it's obviously more noticeable when you're in the middle of writing something (that is, you can be certain that something is messed up).

I don't know where to start troubleshooting this thing, because it doesn't seem to be triggered by something in particular.
Any ideas?

*don't remember exactly when it started, but it's definitely less than a week, apparently after some update.

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

What does it switch to? What do the "QWERTY" keys spell out?

The standard key combination for switching layouts is CTRL + Space. Does that command do anything, either now or after the issue happens?

T.J.S.

Member

Registered: 2012-08-14

Posts: 83

Re: Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

I have set the switch-layout combination to LeftALT+LeftShift in Xfce's Keyboard Settings, in order to switch between Greek and English layout, and this works all the time. The problem is that *something* causes the layout to change automatically between these layouts for some weird reason, and I can't seem to notice some pattern or something behind it.

Ctrl+Space obviously does nothing.

(ok, I should have been more clear in the first place, my bad)

GordonGR

Member

From: Thessaloniki, Greece

Registered: 2011-11-07

Posts: 276

Re: Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

Mm, that happens to me too sometimes (Ctrl-shift) between US English with dead keys and Greek Polytonic, but it's completely random so I have no idea what's going on.

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T.J.S.

Member

Registered: 2012-08-14

Posts: 83

Re: Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

I monitored the frequency of the switches and they seem to happen every ~10 minutes.
Before doing that, I changed the order of the two layouts in the plugin's settings (I put the US layout first, and the GR second), and from that moment the switches happen only in one direction (GR -> US).
Then I decided to completely remove the plugin, and set the layout changes with the "setxkbmap" command automatically on XFCE's start.
Well, this seems to have done the trick, but I would like to have the possibility of setting the layout per application, not globally as it currently is.

I don't know if I should mark the thread as solved, there's definitely something about xfce's keyboard plugin that is not right.

dimsuz

Member

Registered: 2011-05-01

Posts: 29

Re: Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

Nope, definetely a bug, I having the same issues.

My switch key is set to be 'Caps Lock'.

dimsuz

Member

Registered: 2011-05-01

Posts: 29

Re: Random keyboard layout switches (XFCE).

Created a bug report here:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10152

Might be a good idea for all experiencing this issue to provide some details there which may help developers to find the cause and fix it