Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym...

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

$ journalctl -f
-- Logs begin at Wed 2020-01-08 00:43:00 CET. --
févr. 10 22:51:35 a pkexec[3203]: a: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/a] [COMMAND=/usr/lib/update-notifier/package-system-locked]
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 38 with keysym 38 (keycode 11).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 37 with keysym 37 (keycode 10).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 34 with keysym 34 (keycode d).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of $ journalctl -f
-- Logs begin at Wed 2020-01-08 00:43:00 CET. --
févr. 10 22:51:35 a pkexec[3203]: a: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/a] [COMMAND=/usr/lib/update-notifier/package-system-locked]
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 38 with keysym 38 (keycode 11).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 37 with keysym 37 (keycode 10).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 34 with keysym 34 (keycode d).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 33 with keysym 33 (keycode c).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 35 with keysym 35 (keycode e).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 32 with keysym 32 (keycode b).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).
keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 33 with keysym 33 (keycode c).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 35 with keysym 35 (keycode e).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 32 with keysym 32 (keycode b).
févr. 10 22:51:38 a gnome-shell[2176]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).

These log messages are really unnecessary. We all see them and yet more important shell information doesn't get logged at all... I think these ones need to go.

Hm. I think these may be a symptom of an underlying problem (or problems) that is causing really weird bugs related to all kinds of things.

A few things that I noticed:
- I tried mapping 'previous track' to Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow and 'next track' to Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow which just simply didn't work in Ubuntu 20.04
- I mapped Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow to 'play/pause' which worked in Ubuntu 20.04 so far, but in Ubuntu 19.10 it sometimes just stopped working
- Weirdly enough when you first try to map Ctrl + Alt + Down to a key it complains that it is already mapped to 'Move to workspace below' (which in the shortcut menu is shown to be bound by default to Super + Page Down), WTF
- Now a few seconds after sounds stop (e.g. when pausing a song in Spotify or even after system sounds) I see these exact messages logged to syslog. At the same time if Spotify is open it resumes playing the paused song, if it is not open, I get a popup with a "prohibition" symbol in it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_symbol).

May I be damned but this all seems somehow related, although it looks like black magic from here.

I'm not going to say that it all just worked perfectly under Unity, but all this actually did work mostly fine in Ubuntu 16.04. Well, 'previous track' and 'next track' didn't always work but hey, at least the music didn't restart itself.

To make life more interesting this seems to be also related somehow to the combined headphone/microphone combo jack issue I have, because it only appears when I use my headset, but only when the microphone is also recognized. Sometimes the microphone doesn't get picked up when I plug in the headset and then the music-restarting issues don't seem to appear either.

During all this all I see in syslog are these lines that the reporter reported, nothing else of use.

Running 20.04. Seems to me this bug appears only after I run Transmission Bit Torrent Client. My log files have shown that my kernel has been changed and after that I may lose wifi and lan connectivity. I have performed a fresh install of 20.04 numerous times to eliminate the problem and have run a fresh install for days without any problems until Transmission is run. Logs show that the my kernel was modified from root however I do not even know how to access root much less make changes to the kernel. I am wondering if there is some agency or entity that makes these changes as root to prevent torrenting, Below is copy of my warnings from logs.

10:12:38 PM dbus-daemon: [session uid=1000 pid=1610] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.Logs'
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 37 with keysym 37 (keycode 10).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 37 with keysym 37 (keycode 10).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 35 with keysym 35 (keycode e).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 38 with keysym 38 (keycode 11).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 34 with keysym 34 (keycode d).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 33 with keysym 33 (keycode c).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 32 with keysym 32 (keycode b).
 9:15:10 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).
 9:07:50 PM systemd: tracker-store.service: Succeeded.
 9:07:50 PM tracker-store: OK
 9:07:20 PM systemd: Started Tracker metadata database store and lookup manager.
 9:07:20 PM dbus-daemon: [session uid=1000 pid=1610] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.Tracker1'
 9:07:20 PM systemd: Starting Tracker metadata database store and lookup manager...
 9:07:20 PM dbus-daemon: [session uid=1000 pid=1610] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Tracker1' unit='tracker-store.service' requested by ':1.0' (uid=1000 pid=1607 comm="/usr/libexec/tracker-miner-fs " label="unconfined")

Below is copy of my logs with "kernel" in the search option.

 8:42:53 PM kernel: perf: interrupt took too long (3942 > 3930), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 50500
 6:59:33 PM kernel: snd_hda_codec_idt hdaudioC1D0: speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
 6:59:33 PM kernel: [TTM] Zone kernel: Available graphics memory: 1746504 KiB
 6:59:33 PM kernel: [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (SUMO 0x1002:0x9647 0x103C:0x169B 0x00).
 6:59:27 PM kernel: Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
 6:59:27 PM kernel: Starting udev Kernel Device Manager...
 6:59:27 PM kernel: Finished Apply Kernel Variables.
 6:59:27 PM kernel: Mount...

Happens only when I plug the wireless mouse in. Presses ALT key non stop/randomly.

Description: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Release: 20.04
Linux 5.4.0-47-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 4 19:50:52 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[3072]: (II) event4 - MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse: is tagged by udev as: Mouse
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[3072]: (II) event4 - MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse: device is a pointer
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[3072]: (II) config/udev: Adding input device MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse (/dev/input/event7)
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[3072]: (II) No input driver specified, ignoring this device.
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[3072]: (II) This device may have been added with another device file.
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) config/udev: Adding input device MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse (/dev/input/event4)
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (**) MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (**) MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse: Applying InputClass "libinput pointer catchall"
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse'
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) systemd-logind: got fd for /dev/input/event4 13:68 fd 26 paused 1
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:68
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) config/udev: Adding input device MOSART Semi. 2.4G Keyboard Mouse (/dev/input/event7)
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) No input driver specified, ignoring this device.
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1890]: (II) This device may have been added with another device file.
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 35 with keysym 35 (keycode e).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 34 with keysym 34 (keycode d).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 38 with keysym 38 (keycode 11).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 32 with keysym 32 (keycode b).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 37 with keysym 37 (keycode 10).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).
Sep 11 07:59:43 TIS-PC gnome-shell[3269]: Window mana...

Also seeing this, on a Logitech unifying receiver with a MX Master mouse and Keyboard attached to it.

This is also affecting me on Ubuntu 20.04 (started to happen from the very beginning with a standard fresh installation).

* keyboard mapping for compose key set from gnome-tweaks is frequently gone again
* sound setting seems to switch whenever I open the settings menu, also switches when I go to the sound tab in the settings

The same always happens to me when the system does not register key-strokes from my Apple bluetooth keyboard after a system restart. Keyboard appears as connected in the bluetooth setting, but no keystrokes come through. syslog fills with these errors.

Setup: MS bluetooth mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard A1016.

I also keep getting my syslog spammed with

Jan 11 10:05:40 Teresa gnome-shell[2673]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 38 with keysym 38 (keycode 11).
Jan 11 10:05:40 Teresa gnome-shell[2673]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).
Jan 11 10:05:40 Teresa gnome-shell[2673]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 34 with keysym 34 (keycode d).
Jan 11 10:05:40 Teresa gnome-shell[2673]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 35 with keysym 35 (keycode e).
Jan 11 10:05:40 Teresa gnome-shell[2673]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).

Somehow seems related to when I move or copy files. I had a larger folder yesterday that I moved between disks and it kept freezing the desktop every few seconds or so and then spammed the logs with these messages when it unfroze again.

It looks like a trivial issue, and I do see the message flooding lots of peoples' logs. The only problem right now is that it doesn't happen at all in my development setup, so I can't test and debug it.

I found the reason why the warning is displayed. It has to do with Dash-to-Dock and the keyboard shortcuts. You can install the dconf-editor, then navigate to "/org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock/" and search for "hot-keys", "hotkeys-overlay" and "hotkeys-show-dock". Then disable the options. Now the message no longer appears.

If this adds clarity, these messages for me appear when I switch language keyboard layout. Funny thing, is that when I switch layout, either with META-SPACE or from the panel applet, when using the laptop keyword, the layout stays the same. If I start typing from the external keyboard, the keyboard switches back to English.

For example

* start with keyboard layout in English
* from the laptop keyboard hit META-Spacebar
* the layout indicator switches to Italian layout

syslog shows a series of WM warnings like `Jan 11 10:10:57 xxxxx gnome-shell[2533]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).`

* type keys on the laptop internal keyboard to verify the layout is indeed Italian
* then type on external keyboard
* syslog shows a new series of WM warnings, identical to the previous series
* the keyboard layout is now back to English, while the applet indicator is still showing Italian layout

Any clue?

I have the same errors in the syslog file and I am using Logitech mouse MX Master:
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 32 with keysym 32 (keycode b).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 33 with keysym 33 (keycode c).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 34 with keysym 34 (keycode d).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 35 with keysym 35 (keycode e).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 38 with keysym 38 (keycode 11).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 39 with keysym 39 (keycode 12).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 73 with keysym 73 (keycode 27).
Jan 21 17:46:54 sbelishki gnome-shell[4582]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 37 with keysym 37 (keycode 10).

Regards

It affects my Focal desktop as well.

This is pretty nasty. I'm on a Dell laptop, running an oem kernel, with 20.04.1 lts, and some oem firmware for the nvidia prime tool. Anyway, a few times a day, the laptop freezes up, no hid available. When I reboot by powering down (only thing that works, not even ssh), I look into my logs, and always the last thing I see are these pesky lines.
```
gnome-shell[2261]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).
...
```
Not sure what this means, but I'm pretty sure its screwing up my experience with Ubuntu on dell laptop.

Dan,

This bug has nothing to do with freezes. Those are different bugs so please open a new bug for your freezes by running:

  ubuntu-bug gnome-shell

so we can investigate further.

Daniel,

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what this ticket is all about.

If it's just that people see these lines in their log, then surely, it's not worth having an open ticket about.

On the other hand, I'm saying that I have been investigating this for two weeks, and I can say with 95% confidence that when my laptop freezes, the very last thing I see in my syslog, and in journalctl is a spam output of these lines.

If you do a search for "keysym, ubuntu, freeze, dell, laptop", I'm pretty sure you'll be down a rabbit hole with many other people reporting similar freezes (e.g. https://itectec.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-ubuntu-19-04-stops-working/).

There's also an issue in gnome/mutter that looks like it may be closer to the origin, but I'm not sure at this point (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/606). Again, I'm just not sure.

So, other than opening a vague ticket, do you have any suggestions as to where I can track this bug to the origin. Like I said, it's really killing our company's experience (we've got several new laptops running 20.04.1 LTS and none of us are using these machines for simple browsing -- in other words, it's critical that our work is not randomly lost due to a freeze). Also, note, I noticed this bug only once with the oem kernel (whereas it happened multiple times with the generic kernel). And also, I caught it once when I was explicitly looking for it to happen when I did a key press of one of the multimedia buttons (two key presses).

Yes this bug is about the log messages only, not about it causing any problems.

It's not impossible the two bugs are related but I would really need to investigate your freezes first to be sure. Just as I do for multiple such bug reports every day.

Instead of clouding this bug with potentially unrelated comments please open a new bug about your freezes by running:

  ubuntu-bug gnome-shell

and I will investigate it.

I should also note that if your system is logging anything to disk then the kernel will stall that process (gnome-shell) within 5 seconds or so to flush the journal. That's a reliability feature of ext3/ext4 filesystems but it does also hurt interactive apps if they write anything to disk periodically.

More info and a workaround is here:
https://superuser.com/questions/479379/how-long-can-file-system-writes-be-cached-with-ext4

Furthermore, since many users will only see these messages coming from gnome-shell:

  Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding...

(I know it's the most common message because I read all the bug reports and peoples' logs) then it's natural we will associate that message with anything that's gone wrong. But it doesn't mean that message is related to what has gone wrong.

If your system is frozen and doesn't recover then this is most definitely the wrong bug for you and you should open a new bug. If the system just stutters a bit then I think comment #21 might explain that.

I think having a secondary keyboard can be the trigger for both this bug and delays in responses (bug 1777708). But that does not mean this bug is related to delays in responses.

If you are using two or more keyboards then please subscribe to bug 1777708 instead of this one.

OK so there are at least three separate bugs relating to the same log message. It might be a good idea to choose which one you subscribe to carefully:

Bug 1857392: The messages appear occasionally and do not impact performance.

Bug 1777708: The messages appear when switching between multiple keyboards and input is slow to respond.

Bug 1920867: The same one message floods the log and the shell is unusable.

Looking up this type of error message I end up here.
I have similar error message in my syslog . Seems to be related to function keys like brightness or volume (hp pavilion notebook running ubuntu 20.04 with nvidia-drivers-460) .
here is an example with the brightness key :
Apr 29 22:30:30 chmickmini kernel: [82648.971532] atkbd serio0: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xab on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 29 22:30:30 chmickmini kernel: [82648.971536] atkbd serio0: Use 'setkeycodes e02b <keycode>' to make it known.
Apr 29 22:30:30 chmickmini kernel: [82649.039403] atkbd serio0: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xab on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 29 22:30:30 chmickmini kernel: [82649.039405] atkbd serio0: Use 'setkeycodes e02b <keycode>' to make it known.
Apr 29 22:30:30 chmickmini gnome-shell[1839]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 73 with keysym 73 (keycode 27).
Apr 29 22:30:30 chmickmini gnome-shell[1839]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 31 with keysym 31 (keycode a).

hope this help

I have the very same problem, by using a Keychron K8 keyboard, which is recognized as an apple hid keyboard.
What i've tried is also to enable/disable fn keys, without success.

```
❯ echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode
[sudo] password for paolo:
1

~
❯ echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode
0
```

The problem appears just when typing very fast random keys, it hangs the system for a while i guess related to the tons of strings to be unbuffered on syslog.

I am also affected by this bug. Running 20.04.3 LTS on a SAGER laptop.

System hangs. Sometimes I can recover by switching to another window, but most times I need to reboot.

After reboot syslog is full of:

gnome-shell[1979]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 36 with keysym 36 (keycode f).

...messages

System hangs are not related to this bug. Please open a new bug for that.

System hangs may well be caused by this bug, because these log lines tend to fill up the file system.

System hangs are generally not related to this bug, unless it really has filled up your whole disk...

So that the causes of system hangs can be investigated properly, please report them as separate bugs by running:

  ubuntu-bug gnome-shell

Ubuntu 22.04. I get this burst of warnings (> 1K of log) for keys <1> to <9> every time I switch keyboard layout. It's spamming syslog to the point of making it useless (8K+ lines of this in the last couple of days).

What is the point of this warning? The binding is not actually even changed according to the log! Something rebinds the number keys (<1>, <2>, etc) to the keysyms for the digits (0x31, ...) again - why is this not at notice or debug level? This is probably some issue in xkb maps or something - why wear down SSD and battery?

That performance problem is tracked in bug 1777708, not here.

Periodically, the computer may stop responding to commands.
Linux toshiba-Inspiron-15-3511 5.19.0-32-generic #33~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Jan 30 17:03:34 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Although your log is full of this bug's message, it has nothing to do with "computer may stop responding". It looks like you have some kernel crashes there so should create a new bug about them with:

  ubuntu-bug linux