Keyboard layouts with "deadkeys" are not working anymore after upgrade to Kubuntu 23.04 (AltGr behaves like Alt)

[lucaa]

Hello all,

I am using keyboard layouts with dead keys, activated through the AltGr key (right alt) - mainly for French, but for other languages as well.

Following the upgrade to Kubuntu 23.04 a couple of days ago, the AltGr doesn't work anymore as a modifier for the keys when I type, but activates the Window menus, exactly like the left Alt would do. For example, I used to do AltGr + e to make an e with an accent (the French one) and now it's not making the special character anymore but instead it opens the Edit menu of whatever software I'm in (for example in Kate), as if I would have used the left Alt + e.

This behavior is the same on an X session or a Wayland one.
However, if I start an Ubuntu session on my machine (as I also have that DE available), accents work fine (with those keyboard layouts) and the AltGr key, on X or Wayland.

Note that when I go to the Settings -> Keyboard in my KDE sessions and I choose "Preview" for one of these deadkeys layouts and I hit the keys (AltGr + e), the keys are correctly highlighted on the keyboard preview. So, I conclude from this that my keyboard layout / mapping is fine, it's just some sort of a setting somewhere in the Shortcuts (of Plasma or Qt?) to use the right alt in the same way as the left alt...

I tried many solutions proposed for similar issues from KDE Forums, but I didn't manage to find a solution.

If anybody here has more information about this problem it would be amazing!

PS: thanks for the great work on this distribution, KDE is the best and so is Ubuntu and thanks to you we can have both!

[jlittle]

System settings, input devices, keyboard, make sure you've got something like EurKEY (US) present. (You might think that the one at the top is the default, but the layout last used is the default.)

Then, configure the system tray (click show hidden icons, then the gear button), Entries, Keyboard Layout, to always shown. Click OK. What appears in the system tray? If it is "us", click it till it shows the two letter code for the layout you want. One could argue that it shouldn't be necessary to have the indicator, but I find the layout goes awry often enough that it's earned its place there.

There's other components that might be getting in the way; particularly the settings on the advanced tab. I imagine input methods and shortcuts could cause trouble.

[lucaa]

Hello John, thank you for your answer!

However, my problem is not the activation of the keyboard layout or its selection, all that part is fine, I have been using 3 different layouts out of which 2 with deadkeys for many years now. It all works fine, I can set them up and activate them properly.

When such a layout is active, the way it was working before is that I was holding down the right Alt (AltGr) key and then hitting the corresponding key to make the special character (e.g. e for making é).

This has stopped working now, after the upgrade to 23.04: whenever I hold down the AltGr key it behaves like the left Alt, activating the application menu and blocking the creation of the special character.

I tried to fiddle around with the settings I've seen, also tried solutions proposed in the past for similar problems on forums, but didn't manage to make it work. it seems to be a new problem related to the Plasma / Qt shipped with the Kubuntu 23.04, but I cannot figure out which one nor how to fix it.

[jlittle]

When such a layout is active, the way it was working before is that I was holding down the right Alt (AltGr) key and then hitting the corresponding key

There's several settings on the advanced tab that can affect that, but I suppose you've gone through each of them in detail.

Using xev, and pressing the Alt_R key, I get (in the midst of lots of stuff)

keycode 108 (keysym 0xfe03, ISO_Level3_Shift)

I wonder what your key does. There's a mess of methods that affect keys these days; I used to use xmodmap a lot but it often doesn't work for me now.

to make the special character (e.g. e for making é).

My memory for these fades too quickly these days, and I find using a compose key much more intuitive. I use a setting on the advanced tab to make the Pause key my compose key, so to get é it's

Pause e '

On my 22.04 these are detailed in /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose

[Schwarzer Kater]

Perhaps my thought is completely wrong and short sighted (and does not consider your multiple keyboard layout settings), but if the goal is to get "é", why don't you simply press [´] and then [e] afterwards. That's what I do (my keyboard setting in System Settings is "German" without addition).

Or do you have to use the "dead keys" setting, because those keys are actually not present on your keyboard?
Sorry if I did not understand you correctly…

I get the same result as jlittle with xev for my [Alt Gr] on the right, btw.

[lucaa]

Using xev, and pressing the Alt_R key, I get (in the midst of lots of stuff)

keycode 108 (keysym 0xfe03, ISO_Level3_Shift)

I wonder what your key does. There's a mess of methods that affect keys these days; I used to use xmodmap a lot but it often doesn't work for me now.

Hello John,

thanks again.

it's code 108 for me too, but it was identified as ISO_Next_Group

My memory for these fades too quickly these days, and I find using a compose key much more intuitive. I use a setting on the advanced tab to make the Pause key my compose key, so to get é it's

Pause e '

On my 22.04 these are detailed in /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose

Thanks a lot for all these indications. I actually have many such keys I need to produce, with different signs around them (ăâîșț and éàèçù and some others that I don't know how to make now), and I had already learned the dead keys layouts which were very handy for me.

By trying to learn and setup this compose key, I actually got a closer look at all the keyboard settings under Settings -> Keyboard -> Advanced and managed to change some things which fixed the behavior for one of the dead keys layouts that I use. The other layout is partially fixed also, and I think the rest of the changes are related to the layout itself.

Btw now, when it works, the Alt right shows as ISO_Level3_Shift in xev.

Schwarzer Kater : I actually have many many special chars to produce (see above) and I also would need to have all rest of the keys in their standard "US Ascii" layout place. Also, I don't think I have [´] on my keyboard and for the ăâîșț keys those modifiers definitely do not _all_ exist on the keyboard. For all this, dead keys is a really convenient way to do it, it's as if you had a whole bunch of extra keys .

For the record, in case someone has the same problem, the changes I made in the Keyboard settings are:
* I checked the "Right Alt" box under "Key to choose the 3rd level", there was nothing checked before
* I checked the box "Both Alts together; AltGr alone chooses third level" under "Switching to another layout", it was "Both Alts together" before.

Thanks a lot for your help, same to Schwarzer Kater , I'm almost there.

[lucaa]

So,

this fixed it:

* I checked the box "Both Alts together; AltGr alone chooses third level" under "Switching to another layout", it was "Both Alts together" before.

This is the setting that sets it or breaks it, and it impacts the way the Right Alt is displayed by xev (see my post above).

(I removed the other setting for the right alt for the key to choose 3rd level in the advanced keyboard settings and it doesn't change anything in the behavior of the Alt right so it was not relevant to this problem).
I also found my original keyboard layout and now I have all my keys back with AltGr, just like before the upgrade! I can get back to using KDE everyday, of which I am very happy.

Thanks a lot for your help, internet is an amazing place!