Re: Ctrl-Alt-Fx won't switch between virtual consoles after Sarge->Etch
Dave Ewart wrote:
On Sunday, 19.03.2006 at 22:37 +0100, Florian Kulzer wrote:
I recently upgraded this desktop from Sarge to Etch and pretty-much
everything has worked as well as before, or better, which is great.
However, I find that I can no longer switch between virtual consoles
using Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F2 etc.
[...]
Furthermore, make sure that your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file has "xorg" as
the value for "XkbRules" (and not "xfree86"). More details related to
this can be found in /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg/NEWS.Debian.gz
This suggests looking at xkb-data instead of xlibs, which I guess I
could investigate... don't really understand the implications of doing
that though.
Neither do I. Unfortunately it is not specified what kind of "additional
problems" might get fixed by this.
[...]
OK, doesn't look like anything untoward here:
# egrep '^\((WW|EE)\)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(WW) The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID" does not exist.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode "1152x768":
(WW) NVIDIA(0): horizontal sync start (1178) not a multiple of 8
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode "576x384":
(WW) NVIDIA(0): horizontal sync start (589) not a multiple of 8
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode "360x200":
(WW) NVIDIA(0): horizontal sync start (378) not a multiple of 8
Yes, these seem to be harmless.
# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
[...]
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "uk"
EndSection
Nothing unusual here either, nor in the rest of your config as far as I
can tell.
I have played around a bit in the meantime and found that it is easily
possible to redefine the keyboard behavior in a way which breaks the VT
switching; all that is needed is messing with the keysymbols for the
CTRL and ALT key.
You can use xev (as Jerry Quinn already suggested) to identify the
problem. You should see the proper key symbols for "KeyPress" and
"KeyRelease" events of CTRL, ALT and F1. I get the following:
left CTRL: keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L)
left ALT: keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L)
F1: keycode 67 (keysym 0xffbe, F1)
I think the keycodes might be different, depending on the layout of your
keyboard, but you should have the proper keysyms. If something is wrong
you can use "xmodmap" to change it, e.g.
$ xmodmap -e "keycode 64 = Alt_L"
to make the left ALT key work normally again.
This is what I get when I run xmodmap without arguments:
$ xmodmap
xmodmap: up to 3 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):
shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock Caps_Lock (0x42)
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x6d)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Alt_L (0x7d), Meta_L (0x9c)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4 Super_L (0x7f), Hyper_L (0x80)
mod5 Mode_switch (0x5d), ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)
Maybe a comparison with your output will give you some hints on what
goes wrong.
Regards,
Florian
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