shift key does not work in xwindows account
 

dear all,

i am stuck with this very odd problem - my shift key has stopped working. i can type capital letters by using capslock, PRETENDING TO SHOUT :), but it disables me from typing the smiley that i would want to put here.

it is not a hardware issue, as the shift key works perfectly fine when i only log in onto the console. also, it is working for other users, indicating that it must be related to something sitting in my user account and unrelated to a general configuration file.

i have been looking at the possibility that it would be a dcopserver issue, but don't think so as the command

dcop

does not work for other users either - and they have a perfectly fine working shift key.

the shift key does not work, independently of the window manager i am using, kde3, kde4, gnome or icewm.

i am running mandriva 2009.0.

any suggestions/help would be very much appreciated.

achim

Did you put something funky in your xmodmap config file?

hi tinkster, it is the first time i hear of xmodmap and of its configuration file - i will look for it and see if i can find anything.

achim

.Xmodmap
 

i do not think that my problems are caused by having accidentally messed with .Xmodmap.

xmodmap -pke
...
keycode 50 = Shift-L
...
keycode 62 = Shift-R
...

All the others indicate small letters preceding capitals with a good few other expressions following them. a nice link that helped me understand them is here

Thanks for looking at this,
Achim

.Xmodmap
 

Hi,

I forgot to mention one more reason that makes it very unlikely that my - still existing - problem is caused by modifications to Xmodmap.

i do not have a file called Xmodmap in my home directory, which means, i think, that i pick up the default key mappings. unfortunately i am still unable to type capitals, unless i am going through capslock.

i could just reinvent myself as a new user, which would probably work, however, that would imply tidying up and organising, copying across all the junk that i have accumulated over years in my home directory.

also - i would really like to understand what is going on here.

any help would be appreciated,

achim