XFCE - SUPER (Win) KEY not working - not recognized in Keyboard Settings

After tinkering way too long with this and searching for answers, i found none.

My Problem: My Super (Win) Keys are not working, not even recognized anymore.

I am not sure when it started, maybe a week or two ago. That is quite frustrating.

When i try to open the Keyboard Utility Programm, it opens, i can choose the keyboard type Generic 105 but if i choose something different the app crashes.

If i press ALT+F1 the whisker menu does pop up, when i want to change that keyboard shortcut in the Keyboard Utility App, it does not let me put any new Keyboard Shortcuts in there. It says i should press keys but nothing gets noticed.

I tried all the solutions i found in the forums, including mapping the left and right win key in Xorg

00-keyboard.conf:

 System Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: de
      X11 Layout: de
       X11 Model: pc105
     X11 Options: compose:lwin

No Luck.

Thank you for your time helping me.

Hi @Tom123, and welcome!

All I can do for you is share my 00-keyboard.conf and hope it helps:

$ /usr/bin/cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf
# Read and parsed by systemd-localed. It's probably wise not to edit this file
# manually too freely.
Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "system-keyboard"
  MatchIsKeyboard "on"
  Option "XkbLayout" "za"
  Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection

Hope it helps!

Map compose to something else. See example here and then logout and log back in.

Hi, and thank you for your quick answer:
Mine looks similiar:

# Read and parsed by systemd-localed. It's probably wise not to edit this file
# manually too freely.
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "system-keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        Option "XkbLayout" "de"
        Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option "XkbOptions" "compose:lwin"
EndSection

This option wasn’t there before: Option “XkbOptions” “compose:lwin”

I added it, searching for solutions. It has no affect if it is there or not, i can reboot, logout, login, no changes…

Then I have no idea further, sorry.

:man_shrugging:

Edit:

Except another keyboard, that is…

Just tried it, no changes.
As i said, i tried what i could find in the forums, without luck. It looks like somehow that key isn’t there anymore…

Found a way. Install xcape package and run xcape -e 'Super_L=Alt_L|F1'. Now you should be able to use the mod/win/super key. If this works then you can add the command in “Session and Startup” > “Application Autostart”.

This did not work!

I also just tried :

showkey --keycodes

It shows every key, other than the Super Key, even the ALT Keys.

I am wondering how that can be disabled, IMHO, is it possible that i have a Keyboard Map without that key ? Or can this be disabled ? I mean the SuperKey, in some config ?

Makes me all the more certain it is some kind of hardware problem…

I was thinking the same, but as i have three different keyboards here. I tried them and it is all the same. I also tried different USB Ports, so that the system has to reconfigure. But no luck.

Mhmm, it starts to get interesting:

[x@Manjaro ~]$ xbindkeys --key
Press combination of keys or/and click under the window.
You can use one of the two lines after "NoCommand"
in $HOME/.xbindkeysrc to bind a key.
"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x50 + c:134
    Mod2+Mod4 + Super_R
[x@Manjaro ~]$ xbindkeys --key
Press combination of keys or/and click under the window.
You can use one of the two lines after "NoCommand"
in $HOME/.xbindkeysrc to bind a key.
"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x10 + c:133
    Mod2 + Multi_key
[x@Manjaro ~]$ xbindkeys --key
Press combination of keys or/and click under the window.
You can use one of the two lines after "NoCommand"
in $HOME/.xbindkeysrc to bind a key.
"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x14 + c:37
    Control+Mod2 + Control_L

From what i can figure out:

My Super_L Key is not the Super_L Key anymore?

When i pressed Super_L it showed:

"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x10 + c:133
    Mod2 + Multi_key

Ufff !?

Almost as if that key’s been remapped hardware based. -Wise?

:man_shrugging:

This is related to the compose key. Do you have xorg-xmodmap installed? Also look for the “Compose” property under Settings > Keyboard > Layout > Compose disable it.

OMG, i fixed it!

What it did was setting a “new” keyboardmap with localectl

[x@Manjaro ~]$ localectl 
   System Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: de-latin1-nodeadkeys
      X11 Layout: de
       X11 Model: pc105
     X11 Variant: nodeadkeys
     X11 Options: terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

I added de-latin1-nodeadkeys and was wondering what happens.

then i started the keyboard utility in which i couldn’t switch to “use system settings”.

After setting described settings with localectl and a reboot i could say, use the system settings again! wooohooo!

Here should be a picture, but the system says, i can not embed pictures :-/

And now my Super_L key works again and the Whisker Menu does popup, without me remapping anything in the GUI. NICE

Thank you all for helping me figuring this out. Much appreciated.

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Oh, and for everyone who has the same problem:

First try (or install):

$ xbindkeys --key 

Output for the SuperL_Key:_

Press combination of keys or/and click under the window.
You can use one of the two lines after "NoCommand"
in $HOME/.xbindkeysrc to bind a key.
"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x50 + c:133
    Mod2+Mod4 + Super_L

I was aware, that i have used the “no-dead-keys” Keyboard Map in the past and that worked fine for me. I could not find that however in the Keyboard Utility it just says there “Generic 105”.

Also, “de-latin1-nodeadkeys” is what i usually choosed under Debian (for me as a german)

However, i am not sure what caused the change as i have not changed the keyboard…

Maybe i screwed up the Xorg config, i am not sure. The only thing i can say is, that when switching things around with localectl, it started to work again.

Have fun! Hope it helps someone!

And, thank you all who helped and the Manjaro Team.
CIAO

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