Mint 22.3: keyboard layout switching shortcut feels bugged in several ways since the update

[Agetian]

OS: Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon Edition

I updated from Linux Mint 22.2 (Cinnamon Edition) to Linux Mint 22.3 yesterday via the Update Manager. I have two keyboard layouts defined, English and Russian, with the switching between them set to Alt+Left Shift shortcut. After the update, I noticed that my shortcut became non-functional, and went to the keyboard layout settings to investigate.

The first, very small issue that I noticed is that it was automatically reset to Super+Space. Not a big deal, so I changed it to Alt+Left Shift again.

Upon trying the Alt+Left Shift key combination, I noticed that it didn't want to work at all, despite being specified in the layout settings as "Shift+Alt L". I changed this around to a few other combinations to test, and noticed some more oddities. First of all, Alt+Left Ctrl and Alt+Left Super seemed to work fine-ish, but please check the note below (for why the -ish part). Now, reconfiguring it back to Alt+Left Shift, something really strange happened - on my second or third attempt, instead of being specified as "Shift+Alt L", the key combination was now specified as "Shift+Meta L", and it started working! Not sure how/why it detected the key as "Alt" and then as "Meta" despite it being the exact same physical key, let alone why one of them does work and the other one doesn't.

Now, there's one more difference and oddity in how these shortcuts work, because they always feel different in how I need to press them. On Linux Mint 22.2 and all the versions before it, I could simply tap e.g. Alt+Shift, not really worrying about the order of pressing them or how I pressed them or for how long - it simply worked, no matter if I hit Shift first and then Alt, or Alt first and then Shift, or mashed them both together.

Linux Mint 22.3, however, seems very particular about how to press these buttons, namely, in what order you press them. Upon trying to determine the exact rules, I realized that: (a) it always works if you press and hold Shift first, and then tap Alt; (b) it never works if you press and hold Alt first, and then tap Shift; (c) it has a random chance of working or not working if you tap both buttons at the same time, most likely because the order is still there and sometimes you hit the Shift a fraction of a second before the Alt and sometimes you do it the other way. This is actually incredibly inconvenient, as when you type things fast, probably the last thing you want to think about is which button you're going to press first and which one second in a combination for which it doesn't matter.

Unless there's a serious reason why this works in this specific (and odd-feeling) way now, it feels like it's merely a bug or a combination of bugs?.. Please investigate if possible. Thank you in advance for all your hard work on Linux Mint which has been a daily driver for me for nearly 15 years!

[Agetian]

Some more interesting findings:
It looks like if I hold Shift and press Alt, the key combination is now detected as "Shift+Meta L".
If I hold Alt and press Shift, the key combination is detected as "Shift+Alt L".
If I set both these shortcuts to change the keyboard layout together, then both Shift+Alt and Alt+Shift (referring to the different key press order) seem to work, but trying to mash both Shift and Alt together still seems to succeed or fail randomly (though it looks like it succeeds more often than not if both shortcuts are specified).

I wonder if there's any particular reason why the same physical key is now distinguished as Alt/Meta depending on the order in which the buttons are pressed? :/

[Agetian]

One more interesting and unexpected behavior: the Shift+Alt combination (as in, holding Shift and then tapping Alt, identified as "Shift+Meta L") always works even if performed very quickly, however, Alt+Shift (as in, holding Alt and then tapping Shift, which is identified as "Shift+Alt L") only works if performed slowly enough - you need to press and hold Alt for at least half a second or so, then press Shift, then it'll work. Do it any faster, and it doesn't trigger the layout change.

[wvovaw]

I found that for some reason Alt + Shift L binding triggers only after Shift key released.
But Shift L + Alt (Shift + Meta L) triggers after Alt key down.

[Nervol]

same issue, what the hell? why i need to wait key down now? raw release

[wvovaw]

Here's the solution I found on reddit:

Go to System Settings > Keyboard > XKB Options. Click on the "+" button at the bottom.
Select "Switching to another layout" from the list and set your desired key combination. (Alt + Shift for me)

[Agetian]

Nice find! I can confirm that this works (exactly the same as on Mint 22.2 and below), I wonder why it works so differently if configured through what seems to be the primary setting for layout switching?

[MarkMylabris]

After the same recent update described in this issue, Proton games (e.g., Deep Rock Galactic) stop responding to movement keys (WASD) when a non-English keyboard layout like Russian is active.
The key-binding menu in the game still detects the correct key, but gameplay input does not respond unless the English layout is active.
This setup worked correctly before the update and was fully restored by rolling back to a Timeshift snapshot from before the update. Rolling back just the kernel does not fix the issue.
This indicates a regression in how the system delivers keyboard events from non-Latin layouts to applications under X11, beyond just the shortcut behavior in the settings.

[wlatendresse]

I am not quite sure yet if my issue is related to the other issues, because I did not have much time to investigate it yet. But it seems that with two keyboard layouts (the preinstalled "en" layout and the "de" layout, that has been installed by me), the layouts are switched to "en" as if by magic.

I'm not sure yet whether this only happens in the web browser (maybe because of the "English" used there in the settings?), or elsewhere as well. In any case, I get a lot of desire to delete such a Linux distribution directly from my drive if such basic functionalities do not work properly.

[Agetian]

There seem to be quite a few other glitches with keyboard switching which may be related (and which are not even mitigated with the XKB configuration suggested above):

1. Opening certain menus and windows prevents layout switching completely. Notably, opening the application menu ("start menu") prevents switching layouts completely (the shortcut does nothing), so you need to switch to the desired layout before opening the said menu, or you won't be able to search for the software you want.
2. In applications, either layout switching or typing after layout switching is also prevented in certain dialog boxes or windows. Notably, in LibreOffice, if you hit Ctrl+F and open the search bar, you won't be able to type anything into it if you switch to a different layout - you'll need to close the search bar, switch to the desired layout, then open it (and then you can type things in).

These are quite annoying because they disrupt the workflow.

[mark-wsnr]

I have a problem similar to @wlatendresse

I have two keyboard layouts set (EN and DE, with EN being primary). When clicking into some entry fields on websites (especially password fields), the layout automatically changes to the primary keyboard layout. I verified this behavior by setting the DE layout as primary which led to the layout automatically switching to DE when clicking in password fields.

Another interesting thing I observed is that this behavior only happens to me when using Firefox as a browser and not when using Chromium.

[Agetian]

One more case where layout switching doesn't work: when you get a popup window for password authentication (e.g. to gain sudo rights to install software), you can't switch layouts (the keyboard shortcut doesn't work). Thus, if you happen to be on the wrong layout, you have to cancel the operation, switch layouts, then start the operation again and authenticate.

[shtabskiy]

Here's the solution I found on reddit:

Go to System Settings > Keyboard > XKB Options. Click on the "+" button at the bottom.
Select "Switching to another layout" from the list and set your desired key combination. (Alt + Shift for me)

Thank you it's working! I also encountered a bug with the English + Russian layout.