Please excuse any more than any typo errors I may make. This is direct result of the keyboard mapping change that I will describe.
I installed
fresh on 10 December 2024.
The keyboard mapping worked completely correctly for CLI, vi, and nano. This includes the nano keyboard mapping for
and
I often use.
When I started to use XFCE4 (first and only DE expected to install) the keyboard mapping was different. Specifically the main area of difference was for the 10 keys between the numeric keypad and the primary alphanumeric keys. Of these 10 keys only the up arrow key resulted in action, but incorrect action of screenshot dialog. The other 9 keys resulted in no action.
The only key on the numeric keypad that did not work was the forward slash.
For the dedicated CLI all keys mappings work as expected, but XFCE4 based terminal CLI such as xfce4-terminal has the same incorrect keyboard mapping including
and
for nano within the DE CLI terminal sessions do not work as expected for nano, but result respectively in
and
indicating keyboard mapping issue with XFCE where the right-CTRL key is not mapped/working. The
and
for nano using XFCE4 terminal work correctly. In dedicated CLI both left and righ ctrl work, hence in XFCE4 is not mapping.
The menu key beside the right-ctrl key does not result in action nor do the two "Windows" keys.
It is likely the ALT keys do not work, but I have not tested these.
To compare same system with same keyboard all the keys work as expected with dedicated CLI and with XFCE4 using GNU/Linux.
I then tried just using native xorg with no DE and same issues with keyboard mapping as XFCE4. I installed Mate and again same keyboard mapping issues as noted. This suggests the problem
is with keyboard mapping with xorg that is being inherted by the DEs.
I have done alot of searhing for past couple of weeks. It appears this issue is frequent and has had a few FreeBSD Bugzilla reports about as well as many instances outside FreeBSD Bugzilla of this issue. There are a mix of suggestions outside FreeBSD Bugzilla reports where in essence many different "solutions" were found, yet at same time for a given "solution" that worked for one, did not work for others.
One FreeBSD Bugzilla PR 244290 of a few I found in the two weeks of searching for solution indicated the bug was fixed and merged upstream 2021-03-12 00:08:44 UTC. Despite the fix merged upstream the issue still exists present day and for number of FreeBSD users for 3+ years.
I would be inclined to open a FreeBSD Bugzilla bug for this issue as present current day and past 3+ years despite upstream fix merged and that has never once occurred in the10+ years I have used XFCE4 with GNU/Linux.
In the years I have used GNU/Linux the keyboard issue never occurred for any DE or xorg/xfree.
I installed
Code:
FreeBSD df001 14.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE releng/14.2-n269506-c8918d6c7412 GENERIC amd64The keyboard mapping worked completely correctly for CLI, vi, and nano. This includes the nano keyboard mapping for
Code:
CTRL-k
Code:
CTRL-uWhen I started to use XFCE4 (first and only DE expected to install) the keyboard mapping was different. Specifically the main area of difference was for the 10 keys between the numeric keypad and the primary alphanumeric keys. Of these 10 keys only the up arrow key resulted in action, but incorrect action of screenshot dialog. The other 9 keys resulted in no action.
The only key on the numeric keypad that did not work was the forward slash.
For the dedicated CLI all keys mappings work as expected, but XFCE4 based terminal CLI such as xfce4-terminal has the same incorrect keyboard mapping including
Code:
right-CTRL-k
Code:
right-CTRL-u
Code:
k
Code:
u
Code:
left-CTRL-k
Code:
left-CTRL-uThe menu key beside the right-ctrl key does not result in action nor do the two "Windows" keys.
It is likely the ALT keys do not work, but I have not tested these.
To compare same system with same keyboard all the keys work as expected with dedicated CLI and with XFCE4 using GNU/Linux.
I then tried just using native xorg with no DE and same issues with keyboard mapping as XFCE4. I installed Mate and again same keyboard mapping issues as noted. This suggests the problem
is with keyboard mapping with xorg that is being inherted by the DEs.
I have done alot of searhing for past couple of weeks. It appears this issue is frequent and has had a few FreeBSD Bugzilla reports about as well as many instances outside FreeBSD Bugzilla of this issue. There are a mix of suggestions outside FreeBSD Bugzilla reports where in essence many different "solutions" were found, yet at same time for a given "solution" that worked for one, did not work for others.
One FreeBSD Bugzilla PR 244290 of a few I found in the two weeks of searching for solution indicated the bug was fixed and merged upstream 2021-03-12 00:08:44 UTC. Despite the fix merged upstream the issue still exists present day and for number of FreeBSD users for 3+ years.
I would be inclined to open a FreeBSD Bugzilla bug for this issue as present current day and past 3+ years despite upstream fix merged and that has never once occurred in the10+ years I have used XFCE4 with GNU/Linux.
In the years I have used GNU/Linux the keyboard issue never occurred for any DE or xorg/xfree.