[NTLUG:Discuss] Keyboard problems in either X or KDE - SOLVED (sort of)

[Leroy Tennison]

Robert Pearson wrote:
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>   
Quite by accident I discovered that not only did the asterisk key not
work but other numeric keypad keys weren't working.  When I turned on
NumLock to get the numbers (which didn't work either) I noticed that the
mouse was moving when I held down a number key.  This reminded me that I
had turned mouse navigation on in KDE.  After some more funniness I
managed to get that turned off.  Immediately I had all numeric keypad
functionality.  I can understand not having the numeric keypad numbers
with this feature turned on but why disable the slash, asterisk, minus
and plus keys as well?  Sounds like it's time to post a message on the
KDE site.