Getting the Right Alt key (Alt GR) to work in Ubuntu Linux
I've been bothered for a while now that my right alt key labelled 'Alt GR' doesn't work in Ubuntu. It was clear that things weren't right when I ran 'xev' and pressed the two Alt keys - here is the output:
KeyPress event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
state 0x10, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
KeyPress event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
state 0x10, keycode 113 (keysym 0xfe03, ISO_Level3_Shift), same_screen YES,
ISO_Level3_Shift? Not really the Alt_R I was looking for!
After reading this Ubuntu bug report I change my keyboard preferences to be "Alt and Meta are on the Alt keys" (found under System -> Preferences -> Keyboard)
Now when I run xev this is what I get:
KeyPress event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
state 0x10, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
KeyPress event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
state 0x10, keycode 113 (keysym 0xffea, Alt_R), same_screen YES,
At last, a working Alt-R key!
Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Keyboard, Preferences, AltR, AltGR, Andrew Beacock
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10 Comments:
Thank you, it was really annoying.
No problem, it has been bugging me for ages too!
Thank you, this has been irritating me since I installed Feisty earlier this summer
I did that, but now I have a new problem.
Now I cant use the Alt-key together with numbers to make characters such as ¶¡@£$€¥{[]}\±.
Which kinda sucks, because I use [ ] { } $ a lot for programming, and @ for e-mail addresses.
I didn't think you could get the symbols by using Alt I thought that was the job of the Shift key?
thank you, this was just what i was searching for
great, same problem in Hardy and (thankfully) same solution!
worked for dell xps m1330 laptop
thank you very much for the post!
Thanks very much Andrew! , good job :-)
You got 1+ from me :-)
(Ubuntu 8.04) I have the same problem only on IntelliJIdea.... ALT-GR is not recognised. In other application it works.
Then i followed your indications, I got the same result as you via xev, and NOW i can't use the ALT-GR neither in other apps....
Idea is a java-based program so that could be dealing with keypresses in a different way than normal Ubuntu apps.
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