#514245 xserver-xorg-input-kbd: international layout switching produces broken layouts

Package:
xserver-xorg-input-kbd
Source:
xserver-xorg-input-keyboard
Description:
X.Org X server -- keyboard input driver
Submitter:
Wookey
Date:
2026-02-11 18:57:02 UTC
Severity:
important
Tags:
#514245#5
Date:
2009-02-05 16:39:00 UTC
From:
To:
I'm not sure if this is the correct package to file this bug against. Please
reassign if required.

If you set xorg.conf to have more than one keyboard layout:
    Option          "XkbLayout"     "it,gb"
    OPtion          "XkbOptions"    "grp:menu_toggle"
(togglable with alt-menu key)

then the italian keyboard works just fine, but If I toggle to the gb keyboard
then only the symbol keys like @?<>,.-_=+[{]}\| work OK ' all the letter keys
produce strange characters :
@��e�����������������
������������j����
«»¢“”nµ
(the above should be:
qwertyuiop
asdfghjkl
zxcvbnm
)

Toggling back and forth this is entirely repeatable. It doesn't seem to matter
what the 1st layout is - the 2nd layout is always broken.

Interestingly I can produce the same problem a different way using the gnome
keyboard config utility. I installed it as a UK (british) machine with UK
keyboard layout and en_GB.UTF-8 default locale. Setting a different
layout/language there works fine
(I tested with Finnish) until you reboot. Then the main layout is broken in
the same way  Setting back to en works fine. Selecting Finnish again remains
broken. Setting it to any new layout works until after a reboot when it is
broken again.

This seems to be a serious problem for anyone wanting to have a machine with
a non-UK keyboard layout.

#514245#10
Date:
2009-05-16 15:24:41 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,
I want to be able to switch between german keyboardlayout and
US-layout (the altgr-intl version). I'm using a standard german
105keys keyboard.
Using setxkbmap works perfect:
setxkbmap -layout de,us -variant nodeadkeys,altgr-intl -option grp:rwin_toggle
lets me switch between the layouts with the right windows key and the
layouts are working fine.

I want to have this setting permanently, so I added the changed the
xorg.conf accordingly:
(...)
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "de,us"
        Option          "XkbVariant"    "nodeadkeys,altgr-intl"
        Option          "XkbOptions"    "grp:rwin_toggle"
EndSection
(...)
I'd expect this to work the same way as the setxbkmap-line above.
It does not: With US-layout activated some keys produce output I'd
expect when pressing altgr simultaneously.
Pressing the 'd'-key results in "ð" (instead of "d"), pressing '1'
results in "¹" (instead of "1"), pressing 's' results in "ß" (instead
of "s"). Other keys work fine, '2' results in "2" (and not "²" or
something) etc.
Using the altgr-key however works as expected: altgr-q produces "ä",
altgr-d still produces "ð" (what it's supposed to do) etc.
The german layout still works fine.
If I change "altgr-intl" to "basic" in the xorg.conf, all keys work as
expected with us-layout activated - however the altgr-combinations
don't work, of course.

I'm using Debian Lenny (I can this bug on i386 and amd64),
xserver-xorg-input-kbd version is 1:1.3.1-1, xserver-xorg version is
1:7.3+18.
Please let me know if you need additional information.

Thanks,
- Daniel

#514245#15
Date:
2026-02-11 18:54:41 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

Reassigning to xkeyboard-config, where this happens

Samuel

Wookey, le jeu. 05 févr. 2009 16:39:00 +0000, a ecrit: