Bug 34367

Summary: funny alt/meta mapping with sun type 7 keyboards
Product: xkeyboard-config Reporter: Bryce Harrington <bryce>
Component: GeneralAssignee: xkb
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: medium CC: jayen
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: NEEDINFO
Hardware: x86 (IA32)   
OS: Linux (All)   
Whiteboard:
i915 platform: i915 features:

Description Bryce Harrington 2011-02-16 18:10:15 UTC
Forwarding this bug from Ubuntu reporter Jayen:
http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/415768

Another type7 keyboard issue.  

[Original Description]
Ubuntu 9.04
kdebase-workspace 4:4.2.2-0ubuntu2

I have a Sun Type 7 keyboard.
I run: kcmshell4  keyboard_layout (or otherwise open kde's keyboard layout options)
I choose Sun Type 5/6 from the Keyboard model list
I hit apply

Now alt+tab brings up the window list, but meta+tab and meta+shift+tab rotate me through the list.  Weird indeed!  Also, meta+left click to drag windows, even though the window behaviour explicitly says alt+left click.  Weirder!

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: kdebase-workspace-bin 4:4.3.0-0ubuntu1~jaunty1~ppa5 (I upgraded while I was reporting the bug, so this is wrong)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8SourcePackage: kdebase-workspace
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-14-generic i686
UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package
Comment 1 Sergey V. Udaltsov 2011-02-17 16:22:40 UTC
Well, I do not have any sun kbds, hard to tell.

What do you see in xev when you press and release meta?
Comment 2 Jayen Ashar 2011-02-17 16:47:08 UTC
Now using KDE 4.4.5 on Ubuntu 10.04.

Update to behaviour:
hold down alt
hold down tab
list appears
tab released
hold down shift (need to do this otherwise list disappears)
release alt
hold down meta
release shift
press tab - list rotates
hold down shift
press tab - list rotates in reverse

xev shows this when i press meta:
KeyPress event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001,
    root 0x107, subw 0x0, time 2571131547, (121,-162), root:(124,681),
    state 0x0, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffe7, Meta_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001,
    root 0x107, subw 0x0, time 2571131603, (121,-162), root:(124,681),
    state 0x8, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffe7, Meta_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False
Comment 3 Sergey V. Udaltsov 2011-05-09 14:00:44 UTC
Well, your keysyms look correct. I guess it is expected behaviour of your window manager. Most of PC kbds do not have Meta key - so it is quite possible that window manager developers considered Alt and Meta as the same thing. I guess it would be reasonable to complain to them.

So I am closing this, but if the authors of window manager find something wrong about xkb configuration - feel free to reopen.
Comment 4 James Cloos 2011-05-09 14:53:45 UTC
> it is quite possible that window manager developers considered Alt and
> Meta as the same thing

Back Before Mozilla, before even Netscape, Jamie complained in comments
in the config file for Mosaic that on the Sun keyboards the ALT key
generated the Meta keysym and the META key the Alt keysym. ☺
Comment 5 Sergey V. Udaltsov 2011-05-09 15:16:13 UTC
> Back Before Mozilla, before even Netscape, Jamie complained in comments
> in the config file for Mosaic that on the Sun keyboards the ALT key
> generated the Meta keysym and the META key the Alt keysym. ☺
Well, at least we have correct scenario when META generates Meta_L. I do not see any reason to complain about that, do you?
Comment 6 James Cloos 2011-05-10 13:17:52 UTC
> Well, at least we have correct scenario when META generates Meta_L. I
> do not see any reason to complain about that, do you?

I am not doing any complaining.

I just noted that Sun historically used opposite names for its keyboards
and X11 implmentations.
Comment 7 Sergey V. Udaltsov 2011-05-11 23:55:17 UTC
> I am not doing any complaining.
My apologies, if the word "complain" offended you. It was not meant to.

> I just noted that Sun historically used opposite names for its keyboards
> and X11 implmentations.
Ok, I see.

Use of freedesktop.org services, including Bugzilla, is subject to our Code of Conduct. How we collect and use information is described in our Privacy Policy.