keyboard layout and accented characters

[bberg]

hi. i'm trying to enable a compose key in my keyboard.
but i get the following error whenever i try to change any option in the menu > preferences > keyboard applet, under the layout tab.

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Error activating XKB configuration.
It can happen under various circumstances:
 • a bug in libxklavier library
 • a bug in X server (xkbcomp, xmodmap utilities)
 • X server with incompatible libxkbfile implementation

X server version data:
The X.Org Foundation
11201902

If you report this situation as a bug, please include:
 • The result of xprop -root | grep XKB
 • The result of mateconftool-2 -R /desktop/mate/peripherals/keyboard/kbd

apparently the settings get saved, according to the results of the commands it asked for.

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bberg@mint:~$ xprop -root | grep XKB
_XKB_RULES_NAMES_BACKUP(STRING) = "evdev", "macintosh", "us", "mac", ""
_XKB_RULES_NAMES(STRING) = "evdev", "macintosh", "us", "mac", ""

bberg@mint:~$ mateconftool-2 -R /desktop/mate/peripherals/keyboard/kbd
 model = macbook79
 layouts = [us	alt-intl]
 options = [grp	grp:shift_caps_toggle,lv3	lv3:win_switch,Compose key	compose:ralt]

those really were the layout and options i chose, namely:
layout: language: english us, variant: english us alternative international
options: compose key: right alt

but it doesn't work. the right alt key functions just like the left one.
any ideas? maybe i'm missing some drivers?

i'm running lmde on a macbook air mid 2011.
this is my keyboard http://gggadgets.com/wp-content/uploads ... 113836.jpg
pic is courtesy of gggadgets

thanks

[bberg]

some more info:
i was browsing this forum thread https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=54015&p=1 and also this one http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8147340

so i tried to manually run

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setxkbmap -option compose:ralt

and got the error message

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Error loading new keyboard description

checking the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file i could see that the keymap file was not being created

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[  1559.271] (EE) Error loading keymap /var/lib/xkb/server-0.xkm

how do i go about creating it?

[bberg]

solved.
had to generate a keymap file (and optionally add symbols to it) then compile the map with xkbcomp.
it is all explained at http://madduck.net/docs/extending-xkb/
thanks, madduck!
unfortunately i still get the initial error whenever i log in, but the keyboard works