Arch Linux

Kotrfa

Member

Registered: 2012-10-25

Posts: 213

Booting with USB Keyboard plugged in throws off keyboard layout

Hi,

I have a very similar problem as mentioned here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130093. And I am somehow unable to figure out what to do...

Normally, I have a Thinkpad T460s with CZ layout and in BIOS I switched FN and left CTRL keys. That works fine. Also, when I press ALT+X, it does a "#" symbol, when I do ALT+V, it does "@" symbol and a few others I need to survive (as a programmer). Specifically, this is what I have in localectl:

   System Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: us
      X11 Layout: cz,us
       X11 Model: thinkpad
     X11 Variant: ,
     X11 Options: terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

I now bought USB Penclic C3 Office keyboard and it just seems that everything gets terribly broken when I boot the system with that one plugged in. The "ALT+X" for hash doesn't do anything anymore (on none of the keyboards), and the Win and Left ALT is switched on the USB keyboard (but not on the laptop!). What's weird is that my localectl looks exactly the same as above when I _don't_ boot with this keyboard, so I don't know what to tweak. I also can't find anything in journalctl.

In the ideal world, I would have the same layout and behaviour with the USB keyboard as on the laptop keyboard all the time, regardless it's plugged in after or before the boot. That's right now achieved only when booting without this USB keyboard plugged in.

Thanks!

Last edited by Kotrfa (2020-11-08 12:34:57)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,031

Re: Booting with USB Keyboard plugged in throws off keyboard layout

Are you simply in the US layout?
What happens if you remove the second layout and/or switch layouts?

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Kotrfa

Member

Registered: 2012-10-25

Posts: 213

Re: Booting with USB Keyboard plugged in throws off keyboard layout

No, I am on cz layout almost always. When I switch to cz only via "localectl --no-convert set-x11-keymap cz thinkpad , terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp", nothing really changes. The keys are still switched.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,031

Re: Booting with USB Keyboard plugged in throws off keyboard layout

Ok, so since this seems to hinge on the Alt key (which afaiu is actually supposed to be the iso level 3 shift, it AltGr? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTZ#Czech )

The "ALT+X" for hash doesn't do anything anymore (on none of the keyboards), and the Win and Left ALT is switched on the USB keyboard (but not on the laptop!).

Let's see what the keys actually do in either config, run "xev -event keyboard", press Alt+X and post the outputs.

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