Arch Linux

redshoe

Member

Registered: 2015-12-16

Posts: 250

[Solved] Right Alt key not working as modifier key

Right Alt key does not work in i3 window manager as a mod key.

the output of

xmodmap -pm

gives

shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
control     Control_L (0x25)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  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)

I've had this problem in the past and I did fix it somehow. Now that I did a fresh install I could not figure out how to fix this problem even after extensive googling....

What I am thinking is that adding Alt_R to mod1 key so that both Alt_L and Alt_R would work as same mod1 key. So, I've tried

xmodmap -e "add mod1 Alt_R"

and this gave me the following error

xmodmap:  commandline:1:  bad add modifier keysym list (empty)
xmodmap:  1 error encountered, aborting.

Last edited by redshoe (2020-07-02 22:22:50)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,336

Re: [Solved] Right Alt key not working as modifier key

run "xev -event keyboard" and hit the "right alt key" - what's the output?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

redshoe

Member

Registered: 2015-12-16

Posts: 250

Re: [Solved] Right Alt key not working as modifier key

KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
    root 0x71e, subw 0x0, time 3328157, (-1145,438), root:(4747,460),
    state 0x0, keycode 108 (keysym 0xff31, Hangul), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
    root 0x71e, subw 0x0, time 3328291, (-1145,438), root:(4747,460),
    state 0x0, keycode 108 (keysym 0xff31, Hangul), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

I guess using Korean input key is messing with the Alt_R

redshoe

Member

Registered: 2015-12-16

Posts: 250

Re: [Solved] Right Alt key not working as modifier key

Ahh. I solved the problem. It was iBus overriding xmodmap. The solution was in the iBus wiki page, configuration section. "enabling 'Use system keyboard layout' option in Preference -> Advanced"

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IBus

Last edited by redshoe (2020-07-02 22:23:12)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,336

Re: [Solved] Right Alt key not working as modifier key

There're at least two variants, kr106 and kr104 - the latter replaces Alt_R w/ Hangul (whatever that is)
You could also re-map the keycode back to Alt_R w/ xmodmap.

Crosstalk…

Last edited by seth (2020-07-02 22:25:29)

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

redshoe

Member

Registered: 2015-12-16

Posts: 250

Re: [Solved] Right Alt key not working as modifier key

Thank you though.