[ILUG] [Q] weird keyboard mode - how to exit? (and what is it?)

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:14:02 +0100
  | From: "Andrew Court" <syklops at gmail.com>
  | To: steev <mcconville.steve at gmail.com>
  | Subject: Re: [ILUG] [Q] weird keyboard mode - how to exit? (and what is it?)
  | 
  | I had a theory but Im not going to mention it just yet.
  | Check out this link, specifically the text beneath Section
  | "18.3.6.1. Keyboard"
  |  http://www.grandicki.net/o_reilly___cd_bookshelf/weblinux2/lian/ch18_03.htm
  | 
  | It talks about setting the ISO 9995 alternative group
  | keyboard layout, and the key used to enter it.  If this is
  | what you are entering, you can use the Kde Control Centre
  | to find the key combination to enter the mode, and
  | hopefully the combination to exit it.

 interesting.  yea, it does ‘smell’ like something
 like that.  however, there is at least one glitch
 with that theory:  KDE-CC indicates I don't have
 alternative layouts enabled.  (enabling them as
 an experiment got me into a real mess, albeit I
 suspect that was my fault.)   I'm not quite sure
 how much I believe KDE-CC here, since it doesn't
 seem to agree with xkbprint(1) or xkeycaps(1),
 both of which:

  • _look_ plausible; and

  • imply that, under some circumstance unclear
     (to me), an ‘ISO_Level3_Shift’ happens.

 some new info — I _just_ discovered this the hard
 way(!) — reseting the keyboard seems to require a
 cold boot (power toggle).  a warm reboot does not
 change(/fix/reset) things.  I don't know if that
 means SUSE/Linux is restoring something, or if
 there's a state-change in the keyboard itself
 (I could test this, if I can ever figure out how
 to reproduce the weird mode!  ;-\  ).

 ( I also note the xkeycaps(1) man page has some
  nasty things to say about an unspecified SuSE
  version/configuration.  at least one of the
  alleged SuSE bugs seems to involve |AltGr|, the
  known part of the unknown sequence.  hum.... )

  | Info on ISO9995 can be found here:
  |  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_9995
  | 
  | Also, can you tell us the make of the Keyboard?

 yes, it's an “Logitech Internet Navigator” (USB),
 a qwerty+€ unit which I've been using for about a
 year without apparent problem.  exact vintage and
 other details are unclear/unknown, since it is
 second-hand without a manual.  the layout appears
 to be a generic PC 105-key UK keyboard, albeit with
 four LEDs (not three), and lots of extra (useless)
 buttons.  the extra LED is somehow involved in this
 mystery, but not the extra buttons (i.e., I know I'm
 not pressing any of them!).

 it's not a Big Deal — it's very very rare and I can
 restore a working X11 session — but it's nonetheless
 highly annoying since the other virtual consoles all
 “stop” working (as in I cannot type anything useful).

cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
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