[NTLUG:Discuss] Keyboard problems in either X or KDE

[Robert Pearson]

On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 11:35 PM, Leroy Tennison
<leroy_tennison at prodigy.net> wrote:
> The asterisk key in the numeric keypad part of the keyboard doesn't work
> (is ignored) using CentOS 5.4.  I've tried searching the web for an
> answer but both "asterisk" and "asterisk key" refer to the open source
> VOIP PBX and I'm getting too many erroneous hits.  If I toggle over to a
> command prompt (Ctrl-Alt-F1) it does work (and it worked under Debian)
> so I know it's not a hardware issue.  I tried changing the XkbModel
> setting from pc105 to pc104 and restarting X but it had no effect.
>

I have had the best search results using this string for Google -
"rhel 5 keycode".

> I'm hoping someone has encountered this problem and can share the fix
> with me because searching the web is proving to be an exercise in futility.
>

[Disclaimer] - I have not encountered this "exact" problem. I have
encountered many keyboard problems and fixed them in the past. I am
very rusty but the process should be the same. I do not run RHEL or
Centos. My OS's are Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty, Linux Mint Gloria 7 (Jaunty
equiv) and PCLinuxOS 2009.?.

Three things I would like to know if I were working this problem are:
What keyboard map is the system using, i.e., what keycode should the
"shift * (above the number 8)" or the keypad "*" produce?
What keyboard map is "X" using?
What keycode does the "shift * (above the number 8)" or the keypad "*" produce?

If the keypad "*" does not produce a keycode but the "shift * (above
the number 8)" does it could be duplicated or reassigned.
If it does produce a keycode but the keyboard map or the keyboard
driver does not support it you can add the code that works.
xmodmap is the main tool for "X" modifications to the keymap.
This can be different from the system level keymap which is set in
i18n (as Chris said in his email)

I had an interesting experience on Linux Mint.with modifying
"i18n/en_US" (that path is not exactly correct. I am currrently on
PCLinuxOS2009.? and it is not the same as Mint). I modified the
"source" file but Linux Mint actually uses a copy in
/etc/default/locale. You either have to edit this file or run the
"locale" command with some option. Since I was in "straight-line
bulldozer" mode rather than "subtle systems admin" mode I just
bulldozed it by adding a line I found from Google searching. This was
to set the calendar week start day to Monday from Sunday. The British
use Monday as the week start day by default.

HTH