Unable to unmap Lock modifier using xmodmap

Bug #576102 reported by intuited
24
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
x11-xserver-utils (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: x11-xserver-utils

This problem is happening under GNOME, KDE, and Openbox window manager sessions.

I've deleted any ~/.Xmodmap files, so these sessions are not modifying the xmodmap prior to my execution of the described commands.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start a new X login session. It doesn't seem to matter which desktop environment is selected, as this bug is reproducible under KDE, GNOME, and Openbox.

2. Open a terminal.

3. Type one of the following commands:

    $ xmodmap -e 'clear Lock'

OR

    $ xmodmap -e 'remove Lock = Caps_Lock'

Result:
An error message similar to the following is displayed:

    X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
      Major opcode of failed request: 118 (X_SetModifierMapping)
      Value in failed request: 0x17
      Serial number of failed request: 11
      Current serial number in output stream: 11

The serial number values vary but the other information is consistent.

Requested information:

1) Release info:

    $ lsb_release -rd
    Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
    Release: 10.04

2) Package version:

    $ apt-cache policy x11-xserver-utils
    x11-xserver-utils:
      Installed: 7.5+1ubuntu2
      Candidate: 7.5+1ubuntu2
      Version table:
     *** 7.5+1ubuntu2 0
            500 http://ubuntu.mirror.rafal.ca/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
            100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) Expected result
  Prior to my recent upgrade to Lucid (Ubuntu release 10.04), I was able to unmap the Lock modifier without problems. As a vim user I find it quite useful to map the [CapsLock] key to Escape, and prefer to disable the Lock modifier entirely: as I rarely write anything in all caps, I seldom have any use for it, and an accidental activation of it can cause minor confusion when editing files in Vim.
  My previous ~/.xmodmap file used the "clear Lock" directive to disable the Lock modifier. Upon rebooting after upgrading to Lucid I discovered that this functionality was no longer activated, ie that the Caps Lock key continues to control the Lock modifier's state.
  I expected it to be activated and for the Caps Lock key to not affect the Lock modifier state.

4) What happened instead:
  The Caps Lock key continued to control the Lock modifier's state. The error message given above was output in response to an xmodmap command to clear or remove that functionality.

Also: please note that my exclusion of gdm debugging information was not so much due to privacy concerns as because I haven't run it in months. Although this install is an Ubuntu install, I installed the kubuntu-desktop metapackage some time ago, and so am using kdm rather than gdm. In any case this seems unlikely to be affecting xmodmap functionality.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: x11-xserver-utils 7.5+1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed May 5 19:03:06 2010
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion tx2000 Notebook PC
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=5212e362-bd7e-4b90-9b1b-50d67ab7563a ro quiet splash crashkernel=384M-2G:64M,2G-:128M
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: x11-xserver-utils
dmi.bios.date: 02/22/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.06
dmi.board.name: 30E5
dmi.board.vendor: Quanta
dmi.board.version: 88.08
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Quanta
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.06:bd02/22/2008:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPPaviliontx2000NotebookPC:pvrRev1:rvnQuanta:rn30E5:rvr88.08:cvnQuanta:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: HP Pavilion tx2000 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: Rev 1
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.32-21-generic

Revision history for this message
intuited (intuited) wrote :
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in x11-xserver-utils (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Brian Bloniarz (brianbloniarz) wrote :
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
tags: added: kubuntu
Revision history for this message
Luke Yelavich (themuso) wrote :

I get this in natty, but I don't get an error message. I am able to clear Lock as shown below, but capslock still functions normally.

$ xmodmap -e 'clear Lock'

$ xmodmap
xmodmap: up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x69)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Alt_R (0x6c), Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4 Super_L (0x85), Super_R (0x86), Super_L (0xce), Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5 ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c), Mode_switch (0xcb)

Revision history for this message
Alistair Cunningham (acunningham) wrote :

I have the same problem, but also no error message:

$ xmodmap -e "clear Lock"
$ xmodmap
xmodmap: up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x69)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4 Super_L (0x85), Super_R (0x86), Super_L (0xce), Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5 ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c), Mode_switch (0xcb)

$ date
Fri Oct 26 18:06:37 EDT 2012
<press the caps lock key>
$ DATE
DATE: command not found

Revision history for this message
Alistair Cunningham (acunningham) wrote :

The above is on Ubuntu 12.10 running x11-xserver-utils 7.7~3ubuntu1 i386.

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