Description of Problem: In the Gnome Terminal, both the Backspace and Delete keys send Backspace (^H). Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): gnome-libs-1.2.13-16 How Reproducible: Need to have the Backspace/Delete keys work "correctly." Whether relevant or not, run /usr/bin/fix_bs_and_del on startup. Open Gnome Terminal. With the swap backspace and delete option UNCHECKED, both the Backspace and Delete keys send Backspace (^H), REGARDLESS of the status of the "Delete generates DEL/^H" checkbox. Someone from one of the Gnome mailing lists claims that the problem comes from libzvt, and that the current version of gnome-libs does not have that problem.
Does the gnome-libs package at ftp://people.redhat.com/hp/gnomehide resolve this issue for you?
Nope. I installed it (and even rebooted the machine), and it still behaves the same.
I don't know if this is related to a problem I was seeing on a box with a slightly old video card (ie. not supported by XF4) that I installed 7.2 on. It was using the XF3 SVGA server instead. Both the backspace and delete keys were generating the Delete keysym. Mailaccount200001: you can test if this is the case on your box with the xev program (just run it, focus the window, and press the backspace and delete keys, and look at the output on the console). Running the following fixed the problem: xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace" If the two keys are producing the same keysym, no combination of settings in gnome-terminal is going to help :(
You have it backwards. I need to run: xmodmap -e "keycode 107 = Delete" Yes, that will correct the problem, but Red Hat has the setup wrong (why I entered it as a bug in the first place). It seems very bad to have both backspace and delete set to backspace, and then hoping that most users won't notice it because they will use the swap backspace and delete option in Gnome Terminal.
Just to clarify, you had both keys sending Backspace if you looked at them in "xev"? Reassigning to X, this is a bug in some of the X keymaps.
Yes. Pressing backspace gives: keycode 22 (keysym 0xff08, BackSpace) and the delete key gives: keycode 107 (keysym 0xff08, BackSpace) I used the dvorak layout, but that doesn't matter. The files in /usr/share/xmodmap all contain: keycode 22 = BackSpace Delete But very few of them contain any definition for keycode 107.
I have not seen BS/DEL bugs in X in KDE/GNOME/xterm/whatever for many many years personally in any applications other than emacs and perhaps a few others. These were all application issues not X issues. Using the info above I am unable to reproduce any problems in GNOME with BS/DEL using a default setup. The files referenced above are not part of XFree86. [root@asdf root]# rpm -qf /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.fi gnome-applets-1.4.0.1-6 Reassigning to relevant component.
Mike, the original problem was that both backspace and delete sent the backspace keysym - this is an X bug if it happens in our packages, and NOTABUG if it doesn't happen in our packages. In any case it has nothing to do with gnome-applets! Just close the bug if our packages do not ship with the keysyms mangled this way. (Note that the reporter is using Dvorak i.e. a non-default keymap.)
Closing bug WONTFIX. If there is an actual bug here in dvorak, it is only affecting a very very small number of people. It is something that should be fixed by upstream if it exists IMHO, as it is unlikely to be a Red Hat specific issue.