Van Snyder wrote in message news:...

> I have an IBM 88-key AT keyboard. I've been using it successfully with
> XF86 and RedHat Linux for many years. During some recent upgrade (now
> running Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS release 3 (Taroon Update 3)), the
> Alt-Ctrl-F[1-9]*, Alt-Ctrl-Backspace and Alt-Ctrl-Del key combos
> stopped working -- at least in Gnome and KDE. They work from the login
> screen, but quit after logging in.
--8<--

Perhaps Xkeycaps may help you:

http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/

--- Casantos

Carlos A M dos Santos wrote:
> Van Snyder wrote in message news:...
>
>>I have an IBM 88-key AT keyboard. I've been using it successfully with
>>XF86 and RedHat Linux for many years. During some recent upgrade (now
>>running Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS release 3 (Taroon Update 3)), the
>>Alt-Ctrl-F[1-9]*, Alt-Ctrl-Backspace and Alt-Ctrl-Del key combos
>>stopped working -- at least in Gnome and KDE. They work from the login
>>screen, but quit after logging in.
>
> --8<--
>
> Perhaps Xkeycaps may help you:
>
> http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/

XKeycaps doesn't help at all: I have a perfectly good .xmodmap file.
As explained in the original posting, the problem is that if the
..xmodmap file is present, Alt-Ctrl-F[1-6] don't switch to a text
screen, while if it is absent, the cursor keys (up, down, ...) don't
work.

There's a typo in the original message: The keyboard is an IBM *84*
key AT keyboard.

It might well work if I could put the right XKB specification for
it into XF86Config, which at present says

Option "XkbModel" "pc101"

I tried "pc84" and X failed to start.

Van Snyder wrote:
>
>XKeycaps doesn't help at all: I have a perfectly good .xmodmap file.
>As explained in the original posting, the problem is that if the
>.xmodmap file is present, Alt-Ctrl-F[1-6] don't switch to a text
>screen, while if it is absent, the cursor keys (up, down, ...) don't
>work.
>
>There's a typo in the original message: The keyboard is an IBM *84*
>key AT keyboard.
>
>It might well work if I could put the right XKB specification for
>it into XF86Config, which at present says
>
> Option "XkbModel" "pc101"
>
>I tried "pc84" and X failed to start.
>

xkb is complicated, and making up new config files will require some work.
So, let me describe what I would do in your situation ...

0) Remove Option statements from XF86Config, and disable .xmodmap files.

1) The server will now query the operating system's console tables to
build an xkb configuration. You should have a correct configuration
at this level, built by the appropriate OS utilities; for example,
Linux uses dumpkeys/loadkeys. It may be possible to get a correct
X configuration by modifying only these console config files -- if
so, you are done, and your character console will also work properly.

1) Run "xkbcomp :0 filename" to see the current xkb configuration (which
will be stored in filename). This file will consist of 5 sections:
keycodes, types, compatibility, symbols, and geometry. You should
be able to modify the symbols part to get whatever keyboard mapping
you need. You can install your changes with "xkbcomp filename :0".
If this is sufficient, then you are done.

2) You can make your changes more permanent by breaking the file into
its 5 sections and installing them as xkb config files. These 5
files can be called out in XF86Config with Option Xkb{Keycodes,Types,
Compat,Symbols,Geometry} -- this set of Options is mutually exclusive
with the set {Model,Layout,Variant,Options} and the set {Keymap}.