Preface

Several of the newer distributions seem to have a problem with the Backspace key when using kdm, xdm, or gdm (a.k.a. run-level 5). For some reason (unknown to me) they will make the Backspace key into a Delete key. I know that RedHat 6.X and Slackware 7 both fall victim to this problem. If you are using another distribution and have encountered the same problem, this text will most likely apply to you too. I will be focusing on how I solved the problem in RedHat 6.1.

Introduction

So, you just installed one of the new Linux distributions on your computer, and in keeping with your Windows experiences, you'd like to be presented with a graphical log-on to the system. This is quite easy to do in Linux, and I will not focus on it (you'll probably be able to figure out how to do it from this text anyways). Now, having configured the appropriate script(s) to allow a graphical log-on, and rebooting your computer, you are presented with a window that asks for your login name and password. You type them in, and are greeted with your favorite desktop/window manager's interface. Everything seems right, but when you open your favorite IRC client and make a mistake while typing, you realize your backspace key doesn't do anything. However if you put the cursor in front of some text, and hit the backspace key, it deletes it. What's going on?!?

The Problem

It seems that the problem is when Linux starts up, it looks for a file in /etc/rc.d/ called rc.sysinit. This script (among other things) tells Linux about your keyboard layout. Unfortunately, sometimes one is not specified, and Linux uses "default.kmap", a default keyboard map file. This one works fine in run-level 3, and appears to work fine in run-level 5, until you try the backspace key.

The Solution

The solution to this problem is fairly simple and only requires you to know how to use find/whereis/locate, how to use gunzip (or gzip -d) and how to use a text editor. The object here is to find the location of the keymap you want to use (in this article we're going for the US keymap, which is standard in North America), decompress the keymap file, and tell /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit about it. From here on out, the information I am giving has only been tested on RedHat 6.1, so your machine may vary slightly.

First you want to locate the US keymap on your machine. In RedHat you can do this by typing "locate us.kmap.gz" at the bash prompt. On my computer, it's stored in /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/ but yours might be different. Once you have found us.kmap.gz, you will need to log on as root to do the rest of this stuff. (I prefer to su to root instead of actually logging on as root).

Now, once logged on as root, cd into the directory where your us.kmap.gz file is being stored and issue the following command: "gzip -d us.kmap.gz". This should leave a file called us.kmap in that directory. When that's done, cd into /etc/rc.d and load rc.sysinit into your favorite editor (I prefer pico). Now, you are looking for the comment "# Load keymap" or something similar, and the line right under it should say "KEYMAP=" (now is a good time to tell you that those quotations should NOT be part of the file, and I'm simply using them for clarity in this article). I hope you've remembered what directory your us.kmap file is in, because you need to type that after "KEYMAP=". For example, on my computer the line says:

# Load keymap KEYMAP=/usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/us.kmap

Once this line reflects the location of your keymap file, save the script, and exit the editor. If all went well, you should now be able to reboot your system and have use of the backspace key using ren-level 5.

Notes

If none of this works, don't be paranoid, the system will simply use the old "default.kmap" if i can't find the one you specified in rc.sysinit.

For some reason, the backspace key still doesn't work properly on the login screen (for example, misspell your log-on name, and try to backspace it). I don't know why this happens, but once you do log on, the key should work just fine.


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