Bug 171632

Summary:	Caps Lock key acts as both caps lock and backspace in Colemak layout
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	Josh Rickmar <joshua.rickmar>
Component:	kcm_keyboard_layout	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs mailing-list <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED UPSTREAM
Severity:	normal	CC:	arysin, camspam, finex, getzze, hikingpete, john
Priority:	NOR
Version:	4.1
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	FreeBSD Ports
OS:	FreeBSD
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Josh Rickmar 2008-09-25 04:20:49 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 4.1.1)
OS:                FreeBSD
Installed from:    FreeBSD Ports

How to Reproduce:

1. Add US keyboard (Colemak varient) to the keyboard layout switcher.
2. Switch to Colemak.
3. Caps Lock key will activate both the caps lock and backspace.

Expected Behavior:

Only backspace will be activated.  (Colemak replaces the caps lock key with backspace.)

Comment 1 hikingpete 2008-10-18 00:40:45 UTC

I can confirm this on Linux (Kubuntu 8.04 using kdesvn-build). As a workaround,  in the advanced tab of the Keyboard Layout control module, set either 'Caps Lock is Compose.' or 'Make CapsLock an additional Ctrl.' - these should eliminate side-effects when hitting Caps/Backspace. The 'compose' option is somewhat safer because ctrl can combine with backspace in ctrl+alt+backspace - terminating X11.

Comment 2 John Feuerstein 2008-10-23 18:57:18 UTC

I confirm this on Kubuntu 8.10 using

ii  systemsettings                            4:4.1.2-0ubuntu11                           KDE 4 System Settings
ii  kdebase-bin                               4:4.1.2-0ubuntu4                            core binaries for the KDE 4 base module
ii  kdebase-data                              4:4.1.2-0ubuntu4                            shared data files for the KDE 4 base module


Workaround:
> xmodmap -e "remove Lock = Caps_Lock"
(or add "remove Lock = Caps_Lock" to your ~/.Xmodmap file)

Also, after replacing original Caps_Lock with Backspace, the key should be set to auto-repeat (similar to the real Backspace key). Workaround:
> xset r 66

Comment 3 camspam 2009-10-07 06:34:46 UTC

xset r 66 nees to be added to the Command line in the systemsettings switcher
'setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us -variant colemak && xset r 66" or similar

Comment 4 Andriy Rysin 2010-05-13 04:56:57 UTC

This seems to be a problem with the keyboard layout mapping. You'll have to file a bug in xkeyboard-config project at freedesktop.org

To help the case you can try to edit /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us file (the Colemak variant) and replace this line with something else:
key <CAPS> { [    BackSpace,    BackSpace,       BackSpace,        BackSpace ] };
then send the patch to xkeyboard-config