Debian Wheezy, VirtualBox, HP DV6-7099EL problem with AltGr

Question

I just bought a HP DV6-7099EL laptop (Italian keyboard). I'm going to install Debian in a week or two, I just want to test the computer without touching the partitions (just in case I need support/assistance for hardware problems in the first period).

But Debian it's my main system and I need it for work, so I installed it in VirtualBox.

And the problem is this: before launching X11, my AltGr works in the right way (i.e. it allows me to enter @ # [ ] { }), but in X (I tried XFCE, FluxBox, KDE) it stops working, it simply does nothing:

• AltGr + ò = ò (instead of @)

• AltGr + à = à (instead of #)

Using xev I found that the code of AltGr is 108, so I tried to modify the keymapping creating ~/.Xmodmap but AltGr behaviour was even weirder:

• AltGr + ò = nothing

• AltGr + à = # and carriage return

• AltGr + è = nothing (instead of [)

• AltGr + + = sometimes gives ] (which is right), sometimes nothing.

BTW, under Windows the key behaves perfectly as expected.

Edit: Following the advice of trying and experimenting with a Debian live, I managed to have my AltGr working (even in virtualbox) with these commands:

clear mod1
clear mod3
clear mod5
keycode 108 = Alt_R
keysym Alt_R = ISO_Level3_Shift
add mod3 = ISO_Level3Shift

Perhaps the three clear are too many, but at the moment it seems working, and the output of $ xmodmap -pm shows that ISO_Level3_Shift has only the mod3 modifier.

On the net almost everyone says that AltGr is recognized by Xorg as Mode_switch, but here I found out that the right name is ISO_Level3_Shift (or so it seems, empirically). Now I'm too much tired, I go to bed. Thank you again jasonwryan and terdon :-)

Answer 1

You can see how X11 guessed your keyboard with:

$ setxkbmap -query
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:     br
variant:    abnt2

You need find the correct layout and variant for your keyboard. Try some alternatives with:

$ setxkbmap it
$ setxkbmap it qwerty  #i don't know any italian variant

Now you can persist your choose editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, usually you can omit the xkbVariant option:

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "br"
    Option         "XkbVariant" "abnt2"
EndSection