FVWM: Alt key behaving weirdly

[Brandon Jewett-Hall]

Two or three days ago, my alt key bindings began behaving weirdly and
essentially have stopped working.

An example: I have Shift-Alt-Arrow keys mapped to virtual desktop
navigation. From my configuration file:

Key Left A MS Scroll -100 +0
Key Up A MS Scroll +0 -100
Key Right A MS Scroll +100 +0
Key Down A MS Scroll +0 +100

However, these key combinations have stopped working. If a terminal
has the focus when I type them, I see

[d (Shift-Alt-Left)
[a (Shift-Alt-Up)
[b (Shift-Alt-Down)
[c (Shift-Alt-Right)

Other Alt key mappings in my configuration file have also quit working
and print similar weird character combinations in windows that have
the focus.

My configuration file hasn't changed recently (been using the same key
mappings for about 15 years ;) ), nor has my version of FVWM changed.

I'm running Ubuntu Lucid on a Toshiba desktop. Version information:

$ fvwm -V
fvwm 2.5.28 compiled on Nov 17 2009 at 22:29:32
with support for: ReadLine, RPlay, Stroke, XPM, PNG, SVG, Shape, XShm, SM, Bidi text, Xinerama, XRender, XCursor, XFT, NLS

fvwm comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. You may
redistribute copies of fvwm under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.

I'm also using gnome-session.

Any ideas?

thanks
-brandon

[Thomas Adam]

Post by Brandon Jewett-Hall
Two or three days ago, my alt key bindings began behaving weirdly and
essentially have stopped working.
An example: I have Shift-Alt-Arrow keys mapped to virtual desktop
Key Left A MS Scroll -100 +0
Key Up A MS Scroll +0 -100
Key Right A MS Scroll +100 +0
Key Down A MS Scroll +0 +100
However, these key combinations have stopped working. If a terminal
has the focus when I type them, I see
[d (Shift-Alt-Left)
[a (Shift-Alt-Up)
[b (Shift-Alt-Down)
[c (Shift-Alt-Right)
Other Alt key mappings in my configuration file have also quit working
and print similar weird character combinations in windows that have
the focus.
My configuration file hasn't changed recently (been using the same key
mappings for about 15 years ;) ), nor has my version of FVWM changed.
$ fvwm -V
fvwm 2.5.28 compiled on Nov 17 2009 at 22:29:32

Get FVWM 2.6.1.

And then read FAQ #0.1:

http://fvwm.org/documentation/faq/#0.1

And then see if this problem, should it still persis having read FAQ #0.1,
to see what happens running FVWM outside of GNOME, and this might also be a
factor. Should you be able to reproduce it, I'd like to see the output from
"xev" having pressed the keys on it which should work, but do not.

-- Thomas Adam

[Brandon Jewett-Hall]

Post by Thomas Adam
Get FVWM 2.6.1.
http://fvwm.org/documentation/faq/#0.1
And then see if this problem, should it still persis having read FAQ #0.1,
to see what happens running FVWM outside of GNOME, and this might also be a
factor. Should you be able to reproduce it, I'd like to see the output from
"xev" having pressed the keys on it which should work, but do not.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I've determined that my problem is definitely a result of running
gnome-session: my alt key mappings work again when fvwm is launched
from my .xsession startup script (as opposed to being launched by
gnome-session).

I haven't had a chance to investigate a clean way for me to upgrade
fvwm with my Ubuntu installation, but I hope to give that a shot soon.
In the meantime, it's not worth anyone else's trouble but mine to
debug and I appreciate the help already provided.

For the sake of completeness, here are more details of my environment:

Gnome version information:

$ gnome-session --version
gnome-session 2.30.0

XEV output for pressing and releasing "[Alt] [Tab]" under gnome
session-managed fvwm:

KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27682515, (78,55), root:(103,166),
state 0x10, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27684520, (78,55), root:(103,166),
state 0x18, keycode 23 (keysym 0xff09, Tab), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) " "
XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) " "
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27684591, (78,55), root:(103,166),
state 0x18, keycode 23 (keysym 0xff09, Tab), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) " "
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27688036, (78,55), root:(103,166),
state 0x18, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

XEV output for pressing and releasing "[Alt] [Tab]" without gnome
session:

KeyPress event, serial 32, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27819259, (1,174), root:(752,205),
state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

(exits window appropriately when Tab is pressed)

FocusOut event, serial 35, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

LeaveNotify event, serial 35, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27821704, (1,174), root:(752,205),
mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor, same_screen YES,
focus YES, state 8

EnterNotify event, serial 35, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
root 0xfe, subw 0x0, time 27821704, (1,174), root:(752,205),
mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor, same_screen YES,
focus YES, state 8

KeymapNotify event, serial 35, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
keys: 0 0 4294967168 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

FocusOut event, serial 35, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
mode NotifyWhileGrabbed, detail NotifyNonlinear

FocusOut event, serial 35, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyPointer

[Claude Rubinson]

Post by Brandon Jewett-Hall
Two or three days ago, my alt key bindings began behaving weirdly and
essentially have stopped working.

Did Xorg get upgraded? See:
http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/05/31/x.html

Claude