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Just upgraded and now my keyboard isn't working. I can't enter text in apps (libreoffice, nav bar in firefox, emails in thunderbird, gedit, etc). But oddly I can enter text to log in, use the dash and into app dialogues.

Interestingly, the screen keyboard “Onboard” suffers exactly the same way. Must be something with my 13.04 config, as if I log on as ‘guest’ all is fine.

Braiam
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jacktasti
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    Try it once: First make the backup of two directory: cp -R ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/ ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard_back and cp -R ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripheral/keyboard/ ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard_back. Then remove mentioned two directories: rm -r ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/ ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/ Then restart your system. You should get a new keyboard settings. If it doesn't help then replace back the above directories. – Saurav Kumar Oct 17 '13 at 16:33
  • @SauravKumar: can you please add your solution to the answers section so that I can give you a proper thumbs up? This has been bugging me for months. Finally a solution! :). Thank you! – Ubuntuser Mar 31 '14 at 18:49

3 Answers3

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First make the backup of following two directories: 

cp -R ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/ ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/backup_keyboard

cp -R ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripheral/keyboard/ ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/backup_keyboard

Then remove the original two directories: 

rm -r ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/keyboard/ ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/

Finally restart your system.

You should get a new keyboard settings. Just give it a try..

Thanks ubuntuser for your suggestion :)

Community
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Saurav Kumar
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  • i'm going to put your suggestion on my blog – Ubuntuser Apr 04 '14 at 19:06
  • After a few updates to Ubuntu 14.04, the issue is back. I dont have any folders called desktop under .gconf folder now. Any ideas? – Ubuntuser Apr 30 '14 at 13:51
  • @Ubuntuser: I don't know about Ubuntu 14.04. Although you can try re-configuring installed packages.. Try these commands once: 1.sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a and 2. sudo update-initramfs -u Please be patience while executing 1st command. It will re-configure all installed packages in your system. So would take around 5-10+ minutes.. :) Reply if you get any trouble.. – Saurav Kumar May 01 '14 at 10:48
  • This issue is particular to one profile in my laptop. I created another test profile. That profile does not have this problem. – Ubuntuser May 03 '14 at 06:31
  • @Ubuntuser: Okay I got it.. Ubuntu 14.04 has changed the keyboard setting files.. I don't know exactly where it would be but I can suggest you to remove some directories/files to make your settings all new. Look at this answer. You'll have to remove .config .local .cache .fontconfig directories. Hope it will help you.. :) – Saurav Kumar May 03 '14 at 10:18
  • thanks I had managed to find that out using trial and error method. It makes the task more difficult. – Ubuntuser May 06 '14 at 02:39
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I had this same problem. I created a new account and everything worked fine. Ibus happily exclaimed about the new keyboard switcher.

I deleted .cache/ibus and .config/ibus in the original account and the keyboard started working in X (the problem was fixed). I had previously deleted .gconf/* and .cache/* and let it regenerate those files, so if simply removing the ibus stuff doesn't work, try that as well. As usual, back everything up first. BTW, I was able to switch to a console with Ctrl-Alt-F1 to troubleshoot and do all this.

Gh0stInAShell
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I had exactly the same problem after upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10. Deleting .cache/ibus and .config/ibus worked for me. Thanks folks!

Switched to prompt mode with Ctrl-Alt-F1 from my admin account. In my case there was no need to create a new account, neither to delete all contents in .gconf/ or .cache/.

Note that the keyboard input worked in all apps after one reboot, but I could not enter text in the Dash (which worked fine before!). A second reboot was needed to get it working in the Dash as well.

user204129
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