KDE: fix inoperable <Alt><Shift> Internat'l. Keyboard Toggle

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RonC

KDE: fix inoperable <Alt><Shift> Internat'l. Keyboard Toggle

Post by RonC »

This is a fix for the Mint KDE bug that blocks the user from accessing and creating the familiar hotkey sequence to shift between multiple international keyboards. Without the 'fix', or 'patch', the user is forced to substitute other unfamiliar sequences, causing frequent errors when the user accidentally reverts to the customary key sequence, or works on multiple Desktop Environments or OS's -- since the others will most likely be working 'normally', making it difficult to break the habit.

I don't think this is a duplicate post, as a preliminary search of the Tutorial Forum indicated this topic didn't previously exist.

As to 'why' KDE was designed this way -- the only reason I could find was that Firefox v2 :shock: used the keyboard-shift sequence for some purpose of its own, and so it was decided, back then, that KDE would be designed not to interfere with it.

In my opinion, I can't see why this patch isn't already included in Mint KDE, 'out-of-the-box'. The search for this fix was unbelievably difficult and time-consuming. It would be nice for other similarly-affected users, if it could arrive in a Mint update ...

This 'fix' worked 'as advertised' in my Mint 17 - Qiana (haven't yet updated) installation, but until the moderator gives approval, the usual caveats apply -- evaluate it yourself and use at your own risk. Make a backup of the 'group' file before editing the original. All credit goes to the patch's author, Adam Purkrt.


The patch is given, and described in the following hyperlink under Bugzilla forum, Bug 865 - [XKB] need to kick hotkeys on release, not press, at this post, with the heading: Adam Purkrt 2014-10-04 16:00:15 UTC.

Compliments and thanks to Adam for finding a solution, to a problem-report thread that had been running -- for over ten years.

Adam's source post is quite complete and needs no explanation. On the first patch location, my 'group' file had only two of the four lines Adam mentioned, so I only 'commented-out' these two -- and it worked fine. I used KDE's System Settings -> Keyboard Settings -> Layouts to configure the shortcut keys, as follows: Shortcuts for Switching Layout; Main shortcuts; Left Alt + Left Shift.

Note however, that for this shortcut to work correctly, the keypress sequence must be observed: actually, it's <Shift><Alt>, and not vice-versa. According to the patch's author, it does not interfere with other shortcuts, defined using the <Alt><Shift> modifier sequence. So, for example, with the keyboard shortcut, <Alt><Shift><Tab> -- if keys are now pressed in this sequence -- it will still do a 'go to next window' (in reverse), but without toggling the keyboard layout change.

To start the 'fix' working in Mint KDE -- without rebooting -- after the necessary file edit, press <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace>.
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