delete key on linux does not work

Question

My delete key does not work in ubuntu, it does nothing. I understand that this is a common problem, but I could not solve it with the information I found elsewhere.

I ran xev. Pressing the 'a' key gives:

KeyRelease event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x2c00001,
    root 0x1a6, subw 0x0, time 7255643, (-113,-107), root:(425,300),
    state 0x2010, keycode 38 (keysym 0x61, a), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (61) "a"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

Pressing 'Delete' gives:

FocusOut event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x2c00001,
mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

FocusIn event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x2c00001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor

KeymapNotify event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  2   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0

From there I don't know what to do. Help?

---

--- Edit ---

More details: Ubuntu Hardy, studio edition.

The keyboard is a Logitech UltraX (967498), wireless. I couldn't find it on logitech's page, but here it is: UltraX

---

--- Edit 2 ---

Pressing Delete in a virtual terminal after showkey -s:

0xe0 0x53
0xe0 0xd3

After showkey -k:

0x6f
0xef

(First rows at press down, second row at release).

---

--- Edit 3 ---

gauthier@ubuntu:~$ xmodmap -pke | grep -i delete
keycode  91 = KP_Delete KP_Decimal KP_Delete KP_Separator
keycode 107 = Delete
gauthier@ubuntu:~$ sudo dumpkeys | grep -i remove
[sudo] password for gauthier: 
keycode 111 = Remove          
string Remove = "\033[3~"
gauthier@ubuntu:~$ 

0x6f is 111, but I can't see any other relations with what I wrote earlier.

---

--- EDIT 4 ---

Interesting, Ctrl-v then delete makes the cursor flash once, then nothing is displayed. Pressing Enter after that gives ^M then nothing (not even a new prompt).

Enter once more yields : command not found.

I'm not sure about gnome, I'm on ubuntu studio, Hardy.

Solution

Considering that the output of showkey -s is as expected, and yet xev doesn't show any keypress, one possibility is that the key has been defined as a shortcut in your window manager/desktop environment.

Does the problem arise if you log in as a different user? If not, you've probably inadvertently defined Delete as a shortcut for something that doesn't have an obvious effect.

Comments

[bbaja42]

how about more details? like keyboard type, linux distribution...

[Dennis Williamson]

What do showkey -s and showkey -k show when run from a virtual terminal?

[Dennis Williamson]

What does xmodmap -pke | grep -i delete show when run from a terminal in the X window system (gnome-terminal, xterm, or equivalent)?

[mctylr]

Verify that you have the correct keyboard layout selected. Go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard, select the Layout options tab. Also check to see if there is a Logitech Ultra-X Cordless / regular keyboard model available. They are listed in Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10).

[Gauthier]

@mctylr: thanks, I had not my keyboard model selected. Selecting it did not solve the problem though (I don't think I need a restart for that to take effect, right?).

[Dennis Williamson]

All the results are correct except for xev. If you press Ctrl-v then Delete at a shell prompt does it show ^[[3~? Are you running Gnome? On my system, xev shows similar results (to yours for Delete) when I press a multimedia key. Have a look in keyboard preferences and keyboard shortcuts to see if anything's not right. And I think you probably do need to do a restart (or at least a log out/in).

[eugenevd]

Yep, in Ubuntu's "Keyboard-Shortcuts" setup, I had 'Delete' defined where it shouldn't be. My only guess could be that I had another key defined, and pressed 'delete' thinking it would remove the setting, but actually setting it to 'Delete', THANKS!