Antix 19.2 ctrl+ alt not working in IceWM with FR keymap

[Member stick]

Hi,

I’m using Antix on a number of PC’s now and love it — thanks to the team! Problem is that most of my machines have FR keyboards. On those machines, Crtl+Alt does not behave as intended in IceWM. For example, wingrid shortcuts do not work. Now, I can work around that easily by remapping or using the numpad. The real problem is that some applications need Ctrl+Alt for specific functions. With an FR keymap, with Ctrl+Alt pressed, as soon as one uses a mousebutton, the focus window minimises 🙁 I put “generic 105 key” and then “France” map when configuring the machines ( also tried “France, alt” or other FR-maps, generic 101 key etc. etc. — it does not matter). As soon as I change the keymap to US, or “US with French letters”, Ctrl+Alt works normally again. However this is no solution, since FR keyboards are AZERTY, so very hard to type anything correctly anymore then). Also, changing to Fluxbox or JWM solves the problem as well, but I would really like to get it working in IceWM.
The state changes due to pressing Ctrl+Alt together do show up in xev.
Anyone have any idea how to fix this in IceWM?

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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IceWM respects key modification mappings. I believe that the Help features for IceWM have some explanations; if I’m mistaken, then I recently read them by using a Web search for IceWM setup. If you can’t find it, write back and I’ll see if I can pull it up and directly either reference it or paste the relevant details. For the practice, see if you can find it, and if not, please let us know and we’ll try to give you direct instructions or references.

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Brian Masinick

[Member stick]

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Hi,
Had a deep look at the “preferences” and “keys” files in $HOME/.icewm. Did not find any modifier for how IceWM reacts to Ctrl+Alt — this combination is a modifier in itself and cannot be configured? (i.e. there is no way to say “Mod2″=”Alt Gr + Ctrl” instead of “Alt + Ctrl”)? This would help, FR keyboards distinguish between the Left Alt key and the Right Alt key, which is Alt Gr.

[Member Wallon]

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This bug has never been fixed for IceWM.
This is still true with Belgian azerty keyboards.
The keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + Alt” never worked.
I still have this problem on all 3 computers.

[Member ChPol]

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Hi,
There are a number of settings that can cause this problem. In icewm preferences:

 
#  Mouse binding to raise window
# MouseWinRaise="Ctrl+Alt+Pointer_Button1"

#  Mouse binding to lower window
# MouseWinLower="Ctrl+Alt+Pointer_Button1"
 

The second one is obviously bothering you. (Lines are comments but indicates defaults settings). To change this in preferences:

MouseWinLower=""
MouseWinRaise=""

or, if icewm want settings :

MouseWinLower="Esc+Alt+Pointer_Button1"
MouseWinRaise="Esc+Alt+Pointer_Button1"

You have to restart icewm by menu or “icesh restart” in a terminal for reading new settings in preferences.

I hope this helps.

• This reply was modified 16 hours, 14 minutes ago by ChPol.
• This reply was modified 10 hours, 38 minutes ago by ChPol.
• This reply was modified 10 hours, 22 minutes ago by ChPol.

[Member Wallon]

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No, it is not.
We don’t use the mouse.
The keyboard shortcuts below are not compatible with azerty keyboards.

key "Alt+Ctrl+1" wingrid-left.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+2" wingrid-right.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+3" wingrid-top.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+4" wingrid-bottom.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+5" wingrid-topleft.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+6" wingrid-topright.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+7" wingrid-bottomleft.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+8" wingrid-bottomright.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+9" wingrid-maximize.sh
key "Alt+Ctrl+0" wingrid-close.sh

You should know that there is also a special feature with the Caps Lock key activated for azerty keyboards.
You never get the numbers on the keyboard!
You get capital letters with accents. This is particular to French.
The following letters are capitalized: key with figure 2 = É, key with figure 7 = È, key with figure 9 = Ç, key with figure 0 = À.
It is not possible to remap the keys with the numbers because you lose the French alphabet for capital letters with accents.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I’m sorry about the (now) obvious C locale specific bindings.
I don’t have an immediate reference for other keyboards and/or locales, but
if others are having problems searching for them, I would be willing to
assist in the near future.

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Brian Masinick

[Member Robin]

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azerty keyboards are known to cause all kinds of errors with default shortcuts not working, in multiple programs. Just google for it (search string: azerty ctrl+alt key bindings not working) which comes up with an impressive list of programs, for which azerty breaks the shortcuts on Linux, Apple and Windows. I guess the designers of the azerty keyboard layout have not taken into account to keep at least the commonly used control keys ctrl + alt intact when reassigning all the keys… You’ll need to fix this in every single program relying on the ctrl + alt combinations to work, as long the azerty layout isn’t fixed to deliver the expected control sequences properly.

As a workaround you could try to modify the keybindings in all programs like this:

key "Ctrl+Alt+&" wingrid-left.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+é" wingrid-right.sh
key 'Ctrl+Alt+"' wingrid-top.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+'" wingrid-bottom.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+(" wingrid-topleft.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+§" wingrid-topright.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+è" wingrid-bottomleft.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+!" wingrid-bottomright.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+ç" wingrid-maximize.sh
key "Ctrl+Alt+à" wingrid-close.sh

Or, since the azerty keyboard has replaced the position of the number keys to the second keyboard level, using the following replacement might also work:

key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+1" wingrid-left.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+2" wingrid-right.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+3" wingrid-top.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+4" wingrid-bottom.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+5" wingrid-topleft.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+6" wingrid-topright.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+7" wingrid-bottomleft.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+8" wingrid-bottomright.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+9" wingrid-maximize.sh
key "Shift+Alt+Ctrl+0" wingrid-close.sh

Then you must use always use the shift key additionally, but this might easily conflict with already otherwise assigned shortcuts…

Not the very best idea of the azerty designers not to keep the control key combinations working, really.

Wallon wrote:

You should know that there is also a special feature with the Caps Lock key activated for azerty keyboards.
You never get the numbers on the keyboard!
You get capital letters with accents.

This is definitively something only the keyboard layout designers can fix. They have broken the control keys, so now they can fix it 🙂

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Thank you for your solution and your explanations Robin.
As always, you have very good knowledge, expertise, and helpful information
and I look forward to each of your posts.

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Brian Masinick

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