Why does the setxkbmap compose key mess with other keys

keyboardxkbxorg

I just found a tip to set the compose key manually:

setxkbmap -option compose:caps

Unfortunately, after running this several keypresses act as if the compose key had been pressed. For example, to get a tilde, I now have to press Shift–~ twice, and I can no longer figure out how to get a single or double quote – When I press that key twice (without pressing Caps Lock) I get a single ´ (without Shift) or ¨ (with Shift) character.

$ setxkbmap -print 
xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
    xkb_types     { include "complete"  };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete"  };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us(dvorak-intl)+inet(evdev)+level3(ralt_switch)+compose(caps)"  };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

Setting the compose key to the more popular Right-Alt did not help – The results are the same with the following settings:

$ setxkbmap -print 
xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
    xkb_types     { include "complete"  };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete"  };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us(dvorak-intl)+inet(evdev)+level3(ralt_switch)+compose(ralt)"  };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

Stranger still, even after disabling the compose key with setxkbmap -option the keys are still messed up.

On a different machine with GNOME 3 and similar settings it works just fine (Caps Lock, a, a produces å, while a single press of Shift–~ produces ~):

$ setxkbmap -print 
xkb_keymap {
    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };
    xkb_types     { include "complete"  };
    xkb_compat    { include "complete"  };
    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us(dvorak-alt-intl)+ch:2+inet(evdev)+compose(caps)" };
    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)" };
};

Maybe it's an LXDE issue – I'll test it next week.

Best Answer

Turns out the problem was actually the keyboard layout - Switching to English (Dvorak alternative international no dead keys) (XKBVARIANT="dvorak-alt-intl" in /etc/default/keyboard) fixed it.

Unfortunately I can't find a way to set this for my user only.

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Way to remap the AltGr key to Ctrl with setxkbmap

Thanks to the suggestions of the Xorg community I found out the correct setxkbmap command:

setxkbmap -option ctrl:ralt_rctrl

Xkb: Assign a new shift level to function keys

As always, figured this one out moments after posting the question. The problem was simply that I was using Hyper_L which by default is assigned to Mod4. By changing Caps Lock to Hyper_R instead, it worked. It still had to be bound to Mod3 though as a real modifier is still needed.

Here's the updated config which now produces the desired behaviour:

partial
xkb_types "hyper" {
    virtual_modifiers Alt,Hyper;

    type "HYPER" {
        modifiers= Shift+Control+Alt+Hyper;

        map[Shift]= Level2;
        preserve[Shift]= Shift;

        map[Control]= Level2;
        preserve[Control]= Control;

        map[Shift+Control]= Level2;
        preserve[Shift+Control]= Shift+Control;

        map[Alt]= Level2;
        preserve[Alt]= Alt;

        map[Shift+Alt]= Level2;
        preserve[Shift+Alt]= Shift+Alt;

        map[Control+Alt]= Level3;
        preserve[Control+Alt]= Control+Alt;

        map[Shift+Control+Alt]= Level2;
        preserve[Shift+Control+Alt]= Shift+Alt;

        map[Hyper]= Level2;

        level_name[Level1]= "Extra";
        level_name[Level2]= "Normal";
        level_name[Level3]= "Ctrl+Alt";
    };
};


partial function_keys
xkb_symbols "hyper_f21" {

    replace key <FK01> {
        type= "HYPER",
        symbols[Group1]= [           F21,             F1, XF86Switch_VT_1 ]
    };
    replace key <FK02> {
        type= "HYPER",
        symbols[Group1]= [           F22,             F2, XF86Switch_VT_2 ]
    };
    ...
};

partial modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "caps_hyper" {
    replace key <CAPS> {
        [ Hyper_R ]
    };
    # Remove Hyper (Hyper_L/Hyper_R) from Mod4, was added by "pc" layout
    modifier_map none { <HYPR> };
    # Now make physical caps lock (mapped to Hyper_R above) control Mod3.  Mod3 is
    # associated with the virtual modifier "Hyper" because the existing XKB config
    # links Hyper_L and Hyper_R with this virtual modifier.  Therefore Mod3 becomes
    # the virtual modifier "Hyper" because they both share the same keysym Hyper_R.
    modifier_map Mod3 { <CAPS> };
};

Again, this does:

F1 -> F21
Caps + F1 -> F1
Shift + F1 -> Shift + F1 (unchanged)
Alt + F1 -> Alt + F1 (unchanged)
etc. - all others unchanged

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