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This is by far the strangest bug I have ever seen. I'm in the process of configuring a fresh installation of Ubuntu Mate 16.04 on a Lenovo P50 Laptop. I'm unable to type a lowercase 'K'. Uppercase worKs fine, as do compose Key combinations involving the letter, but I cannot type it in lowercase.

Now, xev picKs up lowercase K Keypresses thusly:

KeyRelease event, serial 78, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001,
root 0x271, subw 0x0, time 584185, (115,103), root:(117,164),
state 0x0, keycode 45 (keysym 0x6b, k), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (6b) "k"
XFilterEvent returns: False

Compared to other lowercase Key presses (e.g. b):

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001,
root 0x271, subw 0x0, time 620761, (145,166), root:(147,256),
state 0x0, keycode 56 (keysym 0x62, b), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (62) "b"
XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (62) "b"
XFilterEvent returns: False

I presume that the missing XmbLookupString for lowercase K is the culprit, but I have no idea how to fix this.

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  • 1
    When you press "k", does the letter not appear, i.e. does it leave the space empty, or does the cursor not even move forward?
    – Jos
    Jun 7, 2016 at 18:24
  • I checKed, cursor does not move forward. No input is generated.
    – MRule
    Jun 7, 2016 at 18:38
  • Indeed, this is truly strange. But: Make sure that you have no keyboard shortcuts for "k" defined, either in the "Keyboard shortcuts" utility or elsewhere, such as in the Compiz Settings Manager (if you have it installed). What did you do before the problem started, which might have caused this ? Jun 7, 2016 at 19:13
  • @JonasCz: Yes, it is liKely something of that nature. The last thing I did before the problem started was turn on Xcompose. I've already tried turning it off, it didn't reverse the issue. I'll go hunting.
    – MRule
    Jun 7, 2016 at 19:25
  • Nothing bound to k in Compiz (its the "Commands" option right?), nor in Keyboard shortcuts.
    – MRule
    Jun 7, 2016 at 19:29

1 Answer 1

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This should be classified as "user error", but it may be worth noting what happened:

  1. I transferred an .XCompose file from another machine and it became corrupted in the process. This caused a broken key configuration to get bound to 'k'

  2. I thought that it was necessary to invoke the command export GTK_IM_MODULE="xim" to activate a user-defined .XCompose file, because this was once the case in Gnome. Therefore, during debugging I though I'd disabled the user-defined key bindings by removing this command from .gnomerc, but had not. This lead me to (erroneously) believe something more complicated was happening.

Similar errors in the future could be avoided by having X validate the ~/.XCompose and rejecting incorrectly formatted key-bindings.

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