Ubuntu
mutter package

The left Ctrl key does not work with key combos when using pointer location in Xorg sessions

Bug #1872230 reported by Till Kamppeter
66
This bug affects 11 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
mutter (Ubuntu)
Triaged
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

I am using 20.04 Focal.

I am using a US international keyboard layout with dead keys, so that I can enter text in many different languages. After I had rebooted my system today and so loaded the newest GNOME Shell, the left Ctrl key stopped working in the terminal windows and also in emacs, while the right Ctrl still works. To get the left Ctrl working again I have to switch to a plain US English keyboard layout, without dead keys.

I have also tried the different alternatives of US International keyboard layouts, each of them seems to work as intended but the left Ctrl key is not working. Only with plain US English layout I get the left Ctrl working.

Tags: focal
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

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

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

This sounds like

  https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/2603

so maybe we should merge and generalize into bug 1871913?

tags: added: focal
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
importance: Critical → Undecided
importance: Undecided → Medium
importance: Medium → High
Revision history for this message
Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter) wrote :

UPDATE: For me the problem occurs only if "Pointer Location" on the "Keyboard & Mouse" page of the gnome-tweaks utility is set. I have turned it off now and the left Ctrl key now works with all keyboard layouts again.

If you happen to not find the mouse pointer sometimes, simply make it bigger, with "Cursor Size" under "Universal Access" in the GNOME Control Center.

Daniel, thanks for your investigations and the link to the issue report on GNOME's GitLab, where I have found the hint with the "Pointer Location".

Sebastien Bacher (seb128)
summary: - With any US international layout left Ctrl key does not work
+ The left Ctrl key does not work when using pointer location
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Andy Whitcroft (apw) wrote : Re: The left Ctrl key does not work when using pointer location

I am seeing this with Pointer Location turned off; this being the super key not doing activited.

Revision history for this message
Andy Whitcroft (apw) wrote :

Bah wrong bug.

Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)
Changed in mutter (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Thomas (ng0177) wrote :

It seems to work on a fresh install of 20.04. Is it likely to be fixed on a running system or is it recommended to re-install 20.04? Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

There is no need to reinstall. You won't get a fix any faster that way.

Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)
no longer affects: gnome-shell
Revision history for this message
Kevin Leung (kleung) wrote :

I recently updated to 20.04.1 and experienced a similar issue as described in comment #3.

To reproduce the issue:

1) Enable "Locate Pointer" in Settings -> Universal Access -> Pointing & Clicking
2) Open Firefox, go to https://duckduckgo.com
3) Enter search text, e.g. "test test test"
4) Click in the search textbox after results are returned
5) Use Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right to jump between words in the search textbox
6) Disable "Locate Pointer" to see the problem go away.

Revision history for this message
tamjk (tamjk) wrote :

This is a problem regardless whether Pointer location is on or off.
The only difference is that when pointer location is on, you can't see the LEFT-CTRL key light up it corresponding element on the keyboard map,
i.e. Language & Region > Input Sources and then click on the eyeball button for the keyboard in use.

The LEFT-CTRL key is effectively dead.

How do we revitalise it since we need it for convenient command shortcuts.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote : Re: The left Ctrl key does not work with key combos when using pointer location

Could someone please report this issue upstream?

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues

summary: - The left Ctrl key does not work when using pointer location
+ The left Ctrl key does not work with key combos when using pointer
+ location
tags: added: hirsute
no longer affects: gnome-shell (Ubuntu)
summary: The left Ctrl key does not work with key combos when using pointer
- location
+ location in Xorg sessions
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)
tags: removed: hirsute
Revision history for this message
Peter Englmaier (penglmaier) wrote :

I can also confirm this bug in ubuntu 20.04.5 / gnome version 3.36.8 / X11.
Turning the pointer location feature off (gnome-tweaks), the left control key is working again.

It happens in remote sessions only, in particular with the citrix workspace app.

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