Keyboard Issues with X11 over SSH

jcd · #1 February 11th, 2011, 19:44

Hi, I am configuring a FreeBSD server to host applications (email, office suite, web browser, etc.) so that computers running a light Linux version (Damn Small Linux at this point) can use those applications. The idea is to use old hardware as terminals before they become garbage!

So far it works fine with 3 terminals. However, some issues have arised that make me realize that my understanding about the whole thing is rather poor.

One of the issues is that the keyboard produces the expected characters in terminals running XWin Server (CygWin under WinXP) while AltGR combinations do not work on DSL terminal. To make this even more confisuing , this happens only under some software (Firefox and Thunderbird). The Alt Gr combinations work fine other programs (like OpenOffice and Evolution).

My first thought is to check the configuration of the window manager, but I am having a difficult time understanding which window manager is being using when software runs using X11 over ssh. If there is no window manager running on the FreeBSD server (assuming it is running on the terminal), then the applications must get their configuration somewhere on the server, but where?

Another issue is with drag and drop under ROX-filer. It works fine when running a CygWin terminal but it does not work at all with the DSL based computers.

I appreciate your advice.

Juan

Bentley · #2 February 12th, 2011, 06:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcd

One of the issues is that the keyboard produces the expected characters in terminals running XWin Server (CygWin under WinXP) while AltGR combinations do not work on DSL terminal.

What keyboard layout are you using, and how are you setting it?

What is your locale (the environment variable LC_CTYPE)? It should be the same across all computers (for example, en_US.UTF-8 on an American machine).

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcd

To make this even more confisuing , this happens only under some software (Firefox and Thunderbird). The Alt Gr combinations work fine other programs (like OpenOffice and Evolution).

GTK and QT apps sometimes interfere with the X input methods used in most programs. Try setting GTK_IM_MODULE=xim and QT_IM_MODULE=xim. You should probably keep these set even if they don’t solve this specific problem, because they can fix other keyboard inconsistencies. (If they do solve this specific problem, I’d like to know.)

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