[openbox] that damn debian xlibs bug!

Tore Anderson tore at linpro.no
Mon Jan 3 13:00:53 EST 2005


* Louis-David Mitterrand

 > Starting with version 4.3.0.dfsg.1-5 of debian xlibs, openbox overlay
 > panels are broken: switching desktops of alt-tab'ing keeps the transient
 > panel focused and in the forground until ENTER is pressed.
 >
 > This seems to be a debian bug, as several xfree changelogs referred to
 > that bug as fixed. However we are now at version 4.3.0.dfsg.1-9 and
 > nothing has changed. I have to peg xlibs at version 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4 to
 > keep my openbox functional.

  This is not a bug, but a change in XKB which exposes a bug in Openbox.
 Supposedly, anyway.  This is from the X FAQ:

 > Secondly, modifiers also been affected by the multi-layout changes to
 > make the system more modular. One consequence is that fake keys have
 > been introduced in XKB data files for Alt, Meta, Super and Hyper. (The
 > fake keys are distinguished from real keys by not being pair-oriented
 > to the "left" or "right". Even keyboards that have only one of a pair
 > of such keys -- like laptop keyboards -- report the keys they do have
 > as being either left or right, for compatibility with full-size
 > models.) By default, the modifiers mod1 and mod4 use these fake keys
 > instead of real ones. XKB-aware applications can handle those fake
 > keys, but some applications, like GNU Emacs, XEmacs, and Sawfish, are
 > buggy -- they get confused and will not recognize some of your keys as
 > activating the right modifiers. A workaround for XEmacs is to set the
 > altwin:super_win XKB option. The recommendation of Debian developers
 > to frustrated Sawfish users appears to be to switch to Metacity.

  As suggested here, the workaround adding

    Option "XKbOptions" "altwin:super_win"

  to the keyboard's InputDevice section in XF86Config-4 seems to cure
 the problem for me.

  I also had this problem reported in the Debian BTS.  See
 <http://bugs.debian.org/272214>.  I wasn't able to find out how to best
 fix it, so Denis Barbier (who did a lot of research on this problem for
 Emacs) submitted a patch, which I'm attaching here.  I've not yet had
 the chance to test it (just got home from holidays), but I will soon,
 and if it seems to be OK I'll probably add it to the Debian package.

  Would be nice, though, if someone here too did try it and told me if
 seems to work fine or not.

-- 
Tore Anderson
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