LinuxQuestions.org - dead keys issue

I use dead keys a lot to create accented characters and up to now this has worked fine for me under different platforms. Unfortunately, I have run into a problem since installing Xandros 4.1. Previously, typing a dead key like the ' character followed by a consonant would simply produce what was typed. In this way, contractions like I'm, don't, won't, etc. could be created just by typing them normally.

Now, with Xandros, the only way to achieve this is to follow the dead key with a space character before continuing with the consonant. Otherwise nothing appears. I find this very unintuitive and it breaks the flow of my typing. As a result I keep making mistakes.

My question is if there is not an alternative keyboard layout for kde that I could download and install that would produce a more normal dead key behaviour. Alternatively, could anyone tell me in what files the dead key behaviour is produced? I am an absolute beginner where Linux is concerned, but I do know how to alter configuration and script files. My thinking is to find the routine or variable that produces the original dead key character when followed by the spacebar, and just copy that for all the other consonents.

The other option, having more than one layout installed and switching between them, doesn't really appeal to me. In Windows I can just type normally and I only have to follow the dead key with a space when I want to override the default accent character, and that only occurs when the dead key is followed by a vowel. The keyboard routine is smart enough to know that when the dead key is followed by most consonants in Latin languages, no accented character is possible so a contraction must be intended. That's the behaviour I would like to have with Xandros.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.