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tab key stops working in terminal (no bash completion), tab key alone interpr...
Status:
RESOLVED: FIXED

Comments

Description Chris Bainbridge 2014-03-22 14:27:40 CET
Every few weeks the tab key stops working in the terminal (no bash completion). 
Clearing "Settings > Window manager > Keyboard > Switch window for same 
application" fixes the problem (it defaults to super-tab, but I do not have a super key).

xev shows:

FocusOut event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

FocusOut event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyPointer

FocusIn event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor

KeymapNotify event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  4294967219 0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   

This is wrong. It should be:

KeyPress event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
    root 0xb3, subw 0x0, time 16284333, (115,103), root:(1306,807),
    state 0x0, keycode 23 (keysym 0xff09, Tab), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) "	"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) "	"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
    root 0xb3, subw 0x0, time 16284389, (115,103), root:(1306,807),
    state 0x0, keycode 23 (keysym 0xff09, Tab), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (09) "	"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

I dont know how XFCE alters the super-tab key press but something is going wrong, xfce is entering a state where a tab key alone is being processed as if it were super-tab.

Duplicate reports: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfce4/+question/206191 http://lunatic-engineer.blogspot.hk/2012/03/xfce-tab-and-auto-complete-terminal-via.html http://blog.zerosum42.com/2011/10/tech-fixing-tab-key-in-vnc.html
Comment 1 Alexander Gottwald 2014-09-22 16:54:56 CEST
This happens when no Super key is defined. The default key combination Super+Tab is then invalid becuase no Super modifier is available but it is executed for every keypress without a modifier.

Reproduce:

* Start Xserver without any window manager
* Start xterm 
* Remove Super modifiers: $ xmodmap -e "remove mod4 = Super_L Super_R"
  (Adjust modifier if Super is bound to a different modifier)
* Start xfce-session
* Tab will now trigger Super+Tab shortcut
Comment 2 Orion Poplawski 2015-09-11 00:26:29 CEST
This is seen a lot with the x2goclient on OSX as it does not define the <Super> key - see http://bugs.x2go.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=348

A workaround for the OSX client is to define the Super keys in ~/.Xmodmap:

keycode 63 = Super_L
keycode 71 = Super_R

or similar.  Seems to be present in xfce 4.8.0 and 4.12.1.
Comment 3 Leon Nathaniel Maurer 2016-02-05 20:49:42 CET
Any word and fixing this bug? It's still alive and well in 4.12.
Comment 4 pythonpups 2016-04-29 13:08:28 CEST
This bug has been around since at least 2007. At least I found issues with the Super-key not being defined in XFCE with a simple search from this far back. 
Since in a default install of XFCE4 (e.g. from the Ubuntu repos in Trusty and Xenial) shotcuts are using the Super key with no such key being defined leads to strange behaviour all over the place. The most severe for anyone working on the command line being dead bash completion. 
A workaround is either to to set the "Super-Tab" shortcut to empty in xfce4-settings-editor or to finally define the Super key(s), e.g. with xmodmap. But this is nothing your standard user will be able to do or find out. 
This should be quite easy to fix for an XFCE developer by just changing the default configuration files delivered, shouldn't it?
Comment 5 Olivier Fourdan editbugs 2016-04-30 19:19:22 CEST
Solution is to ignore keyboard shortcuts that use an unsupported modifier.

Fix pushed as commit 7f4981 in master and commit 867ab66 in branch xfce-4.12

Bug #10760

Reported by:
Chris Bainbridge
Reported on: 2014-03-22
Last modified on: 2016-04-30

People

Assignee:
Olivier Fourdan
CC List:
4 users

Version

Version:
4.10.1

Attachments

Additional information