[Solved] Shortcuts not working in ubuntu 22.04 lo 7.3.7.2

[dgermann]

Friends--

Ever since upgrading Ubuntu to 22.04, which gave me lo 7.3.x, I have had many strangenesses. A sample is that:

1. ctl-alt-up (and down) do not work: they do nothing, cursor just sits there
2. ctl-sh-end does not work: does nothing, cursor just sits there (some times, for no apparent reason, it does work)
3. open multiple documents does not work

I have this on three machines. Two I upgraded from 18.04 to 20.04 to 22.04; one I installed from scratch. Same problems on each of them.

Most recently I have been trying different versions of lo on one of the machines. I have flatpak 7.4.2.3, and have removed the natively installed lo and installed 7.1.8.1. Have the same problems with each of them.

When I had Ubuntu 18.04 on these machines, I had no such problems. So I am thinking to drop back to whatever 18.04 had, I think 6.4 or 6.2.

One sunny note for the newest version: when I move the cursor up with the arrow key, it now goes directly above where it was in the originating line, does not jump around, like it did before all these upgrades. Small consolations!

Any ideas what is going on, and especially how to fix it?

Thanks!

[FJCC]

I have Linux Mint 21, which is basically Ubuntu 22.04 and I do not see those problems. Ctrl + Shift + End works as usual and I can open multiple documents. I'm not familiar with CTRL + Alt + Up. That does seem to collide with a system short cut to switch Workspaces. The LibreOffice is 7.3.7.2. I would try resetting your user profile by renaming the folder ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user. I usually use OpenOffice and weird symptoms are sometimes fixed by doing that.

[dgermann]

FJCC--

Thanks for helping me!

ctl-alt-up for me in 7.3.7.2 under tools > customize > keyboard shows that it moves a line up to above the line above it. (So if you have a list 1-2-3, and do this on the last line, you end up with 1-3-2.)

I had reset the profile previously and it made no difference. This seems to have made no difference this time.

I did drop the other machine to 6.4.7.2, and have the same behavior. Wonder why I cannot get it to open more than one file at a time? Could that be a clue to something else, outside of lo?

Thanks, FJCC!

[Hagar Delest]

Does it matter if you use the LO dialogs or the system's dialogs? In Tools > Options > LO > General and Open/Save dialogs

[dgermann]

Hagar--

No, it does not make any difference in 7.3.7.2 on the 'puter wind.

No, it does not make any difference in 7.4.2.3 (flatpak), nor in 6.4.7.2. on the computer yarn.

In all instances, however, I can shift-click files to select many at once, but if the files I want are separated by 20 files, it opens 20 too many files.

I'm wondering if there is some way to definitively narrow this down to LO or Ubuntu? I am having a similar problem with PDF Studio Pro 2020.5.1 (notice, a couple years old), and there I was able to select multiple files by using the program's file dialogs. Nautilus, however, allows me to control-click several non contiguous files. text editor does not allow control-click, but does accept shift-click. I cannot think of any other program installed that opens files.

Thanks, Hagar!

[Hagar Delest]

Maybe something to do with the desktop manager. If you install another one like XFCE (lightweight, thus won't clutter your system too much) and if it works fine, then the issue may be with Unity, if that's what's being used in Ubuntu.

[Bill]

I booted Ubuntu 22.04 from a live USB stick and didn't see any problem using the default LO and the default desktop manager. Ctrl-shift-end works. Ctrl-click works to select non-contiguous files. Ctrl-alt-up doesn't work, but I don't expect it to work because ctrl-alt-up is used by Ubuntu. If you were having the problem on only one computer I would suspect a problem with the ctrl key.

[Hagar Delest]

I would suspect a problem with the ctrl key.

The kind of trivial issue I never think of!
Quite likely to be the culprit here.

[dgermann]

Hagar and Bill--

The mystery continues.

I installed xfce on yarn and logged into the xfce session. Powered up 7.4.2.3 flatpak and attempted to control click open several files. No go. Could only click on one.

ctrl-sh-end worked once; ctrl-sh-home did not work, then it worked. It is almost as if there is some sort of a delay. Another issue I have been having is that if I do ctrl-s to save a document, sometimes it will tell me it has been edited by another person (when it has not), do I want to save anyway? I cancel, do ctrl-s again and it saves.

This ctrl-click issue occurs on three separate machines.

Thanks helping me think through this one!

[Hagar Delest]

The only thing I can think of then is an application installed on the 3 machines and that interferes.
But that would be something quite "massive" to have such layer between the hardware and the applications installed.
But it's strange that you have some applications that allows the ctrl clic (Nautilus) and some others that don't (text editor). I think that a text editor should allow it. Thus, something system wide but not systematic.
I would still try with another keyboard, who knows and if no change, try to reinstall the distro from scratch on a machine (or try a live USB-key), installing applications progressively to see if there is one that triggers the issue.

[RoryOF]

Just now tested using OpenOffice on OO originated .ODT files, never near .DOC format:

On Xubuntu 22.04.1 Ctrl S always works for me, once the file has been edited from the previous Save. Ctrl Shft Home and Ctrl Shft End both select from cursor position to the start or end respectively of the current OO Section, or if Sections are not used, to the Start/End of the document. Ctrl End/Home move to the Start/End of the Section or Document

Ctrl Alt Up-arrow/Down-arrow do nothing; Ctrl Up-arrow/Down-arrow move to the start of the previous/next paragraph.

[dgermann]

Friends--

Good news!

I think. Could I ask you to do a little test and see if you can confirm what is the problem?

The “locate pointer” setting in (gnome) Settings > Accessibility > Locate Pointer interferes with the left ctrl key (right one still works). If you would be so kind, could you try turning on that Locate Pointer setting and see if it gives you the fits I have had? Toggling it for me alternately breaks and fixes it. If you confirm, I will mark this solved.

There is a bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1872230. Someone else reported something similar could be fixed by resetting gnome: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=948257. I did not try that. What a struggle this has been! Now I just need to find some other way to find my mouse pointer on these three screens. What I settled on temporarily was a very large mouse pointer under Tweaks > Appearance > Cursor (I chose Yaru for now).

So for someone else who is struggling with similar issues, here are the steps that took me to this: I realized I had another machine which I had updated and converted to use as a server, but it still had X on it. So I checked and LO was working fine there. Then for some reason I tried the right ctrl key and found it worked ok. So I searched for left ctrl not working and found those two pages I cited above. Then I looked at my original post and saw that all the problems seemed to involve the ctrl key, of which I normally use the left one.

So that leaves a few other things like the keep last place and hyphenation issues, to which I can now give a little attention.

What say you: have I found the issue?

[Bill]

I realized I had another machine which I had updated and converted to use as a server, but it still had X on it. So I checked and LO was working fine there.

Is the problem only occurring under Wayland? That's something I can't easily check. Have you tried booting Ubuntu 22.04 with X11 instead of Wayland?

[RoryOF]

I haven't checked according to the latest request - will try later when I have time. I am using X11 on an i915 graphics driving a three screen display and use a 48 pt cursor.

[dgermann]

Bill--

Early on in 22.04 I learned not to use Wayland <grin>. So I am using one of the gnome choices, don't remember which.

[Bill]

It looks like there are two different problems with different causes. Enabling "locate pointer" does break ctrl-click for me in the Open dialogs, but it doesn't affect ctrl-shift-home or ctrl-shift-end. However, if I use "ctrl-shift" as a shortcut in Ubuntu, ctrl-shift is ignored in LibreOffice. In Ubuntu Mate "Ctrl-shift" is a shortcut option for changing the keyboard layout in Ubuntu Mate. Check your Ubuntu keyboard shortcuts to see if "ctrl-shift" may have been used in Ubuntu.

[Bill]

Bill--

Early on in 22.04 I learned not to use Wayland <grin>. So I am using one of the gnome choices, don't remember which.

I found a duplicate bug report that says the problem happens under Xorg, but not under Wayland:

Weird CTRL+SHIFT+KEY behaviour in Xorg sessions with "Locate Pointer" on

Edit: Confirmed. Everything works normally under Wayland.

[dgermann]

Bill--

Thanks for reporting back.

Thanks also for finding that other bug report.

Ctrl-Sh does not seem to be in the Ubuntu 22.04 shortcut keys.

It seems to me this particular issue has been resolved for me, except for the bugs being fixed, that is!

Thanks for your help, Bill!