xkbmap trouble... :-(

[Tom <tom@abwaerts.be>]

Hey all,

Less than a week ago, my keyboard functioned quite properly. I have a
Belgian azerty-layout, and there were only minor problems. A backslash,
which should be AltGr + the key with < and > could only be typed by
using AltGr + ). Other than that, everything just worked.

Then somebody told me the solution to that tiny problem could be to

wget -O /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/be
http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/xc/programs/xkbcomp/
symbols/pc/be?content-type=text/plain

and afterwards setxkbmap "be", but instead of solving the problem, it
only made things worse (I had no AltGr at all any more). Still later,
the new problem *and* the previous problem were both solved by
downloading be?rev=1.3&content-type=text/plain instead of the latest
revision. I was quite happy about it, but it didn't last long.

This morning, I logged in, and everything was back to the second stage:
not even a "workaround" for my backslash, but just plainly no AltGr-key
(meaning no at-sign, no hashes etc.). I thought getting things to where
they were before I'd been so stupid to mess things up might be the best
solution, so I downloaded the .deb of xlibs, and put the be keyboard
layout therein (/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/be) instead of my own,
guessing that the initial layout would then magically reappear. But it
didn't; every time I try to 'setxkbmap be' or even 'setxkbmap -rules
xfree86 -model pc -layout be -option ""', the only thing I get is "error
loading new keyboard description". 

I just don't understand, it's the original file of the Debian package,
that worked before, what error could that result in? (if only it told me
what the error really was...)

In a last moment of despair, I thought, let's just get XFree86 4.3, but
the penguinpc sources are "not available at the moment".

Could someone please tell me what might be the problem here? Why
replacing the modified layout with the original one doesn't solve the
problem? And what I could do about it? 

Thanks a lot...
Tom

-- 
"Mongolian drivers do not care much about pedestrians."
--
np: Gorki - Monstertje (flac)