Issue
I have a German keyboard and I am using my Alt Gr for short cuts very heavily.
Now I recently switched to a newer Linux version and all my Alt Gr stopped working.
Instead of executing the command attributed to the shortcut the bound character i.e. ŋ for Alt Gr + G was shown.
Doing some research I found some long standing related bug tickets:
- National keyboard layouts support
- AltGr shortcut not working on Ubuntu
- Alt Gr (German keyboard layout) not working for shortcuts
- Cannot type characters that require AltGr
But none of the settings shown there fixed the shortcuts. So how to fix them?
The output of xmodmap -pke and setxkbmap -print -verbose 10 showed no difference between my old Linux (working shortcuts) and the new one.
Solution
The problem seemed to be related to Modifier Keys.
It turned out that xmodmap -pm showed a different configuration between the two Linux.
Fedora 22 (not working) showed
shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock Caps_Lock (0x42)
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x69)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Alt_L (0xcc), Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3 Mode_switch (0xcb)
mod4 Super_L (0x85), Super_R (0x86), Super_L (0xce), Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5 ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c)
While Ubuntu (working) was returning
shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock Caps_Lock (0x42)
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x69)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Alt_L (0xcc), Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4 Super_L (0x85), Super_R (0x86), Super_L (0xce), Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5 ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c), ISO_Level3_Shift (0x6c), Mode_switch (0xcb)
With the help of this Archlinux Wiki article, I was able to create the following ~/.Xmodmap.
! First we need clear the existing mods
clear mod1
clear mod3
clear mod5
! The Mode_switch needs to be bound to a key, in order to work
! In my layout this wasn't the case, so I needed to manually do this
keycode 203 = Mode_switch NoSymbol Mode_switch
! Finally delcare the correct modifiers
add mod1 = Alt_L Meta_L
add mod5 = ISO_Level3_Shift Mode_switch
This fixed my Alt Gr shortcuts in PyCharm, now they are recognized as expected.
Settings > Keymap > Use national layouts for shortcuts is off.
Note, I can still write special chars like ŋ in other editors and also in PyCharm as long as no shortcut is bound to it.
Answered By - Kound Answer Checked By - Marie Seifert (WPSolving Admin)