GDM, Debian 2.2 (potato) and my Backspace key!

[SlCKB0Y]

OKay, heres the problem. I used to use slackware 7.0, and 7.1 and during that time i never came across the following problem.

I installed a very basic install of Debian 2.2, as i wanted to build the system up bit by bit so as avoid having a whole lot of crud that is useless to me on my hard drive. apt-get seemed to be perfectly suited to this task. I noticed a few qwirks during the install such as i selected NOT to install XDM and 100p fonts, but none the less they were still installed. Now i have read that XDM, GDM, and KDM can cause certain problems under certain conditions, and the main one being the backspace key will not function under X.

Now, back to the problem, being a big fan of gnome, i decided i would apt-get the base helix gnome package using "apt-get install task-helix-core", and this installed all fine and well with the slight exception of me having to manually install GDM separately to satisfy dependancies.

Now when i restarted my X server to check out Gnome, i couldnt help but notice my backspace key was no longer working. Having read about this before, i decided not to start my GDM on boot, so i went into /etc/rc2.d and changed the symbolic link "S99gdm" to "K99gdm" so as to avoid starting it, and hopefully get the use of my backspace key back. I then rebooted just to be thorough, and then when i typed "startx" after the reboot, still the problem persisted!

Now here are some points of note

1. The backspace key works fine when X is not running (from the command line)

2. The backspace key fails to work under any window manager

3. I know there is a NHF on the matter, but the various keymap files detailed in this NHF do not exist under Debian (i guess it has its own special ones)

4. I cant understand why the backspace key worked fine with XDM but not with GDM, the onnly thing coming to mind was that GDM changed some config file relating to the keymap.

5. When i installed all this stuff using apt-get, i used Craig's sources.list file.

6. Debian kicks *** and i love it, but this is VERY frustrating not being able to use the backspace key in X.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[rod]

I found this:

GDM Startup

The Gnome Display Manager gdm, when installed, will start up automatically on boot. This presents an X11 interface to log on. If you are used to starting X11 from the command line you will be used to using either .xsession or .xinitrc to tune some of your X11 settings. The System menu in the gdm dialogue lets you start up Debian, Gnome, or XSession. To tune your X11 settings in this environment with your .xsession file be sure to run with the Debian session. If you use the default
Gnome session in gdm place your tuning in the file .gnomerc in your home directory, but be sure not to include any window managers, etc., as these are started by the gnome-session command that the Gnome session starts.


Here: http://www.act.cmis.csiro.au/gjw/linux/dlcpid300xt.html

Regards,
Rod

[SlCKB0Y]

Did this work for you?

Thanks for this answer, ive been LOST!

Any other suggestions from anybody?

[rod]

I haven't had your problem. I was just hoping to, maybe, point in the right direction. I will do some more searching and see if I can find better information.

Regards,
Rod


If you know a file I can post for you let me know. I am running Woody and HelixGnome.


Regards,
Rod

[This message has been edited by rod (edited 03 December 2000).]

[ColdPack]

When I used apt-get to install kde2 (I'm running potato) I also lost my backspace key.
No, I haven't figured out how to get it back.
It drives me nuts, though.
One person did tell me that he/she had this same problem after a similar kde2 install (with apt-get) but found it remedied a few days later after doing and apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.
Beats me!

------------------
"Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography."
--- Paul Rodriguez

[SlCKB0Y]

Craig...i cant believe you dont know how to fix this?

Are you letting some conflict you perceive to exist in an unrelated forum where YOU made a personal and slanderous attack on my charater get in the way of helping out a fellow debian user?