special characters in ubuntu 9.04

Largo71 wrote:
> New question #73014 on Ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/73014
>
> My special characters (ie: @,",etc) are all mixed up to where they should be or aren't there at all. thusly I can't do email addresses or any of the like. not sure if it's language (all are set to english us/canada) or some thing else
>

Check Preferences > Keyboard > Layouts

Make sure it is set correctly. In general the model would be Generic
105-key (Intl) PC or similar, and the layout in the US is just USA.

the system on a Toshiba M-800 Laptop with english/french keyboard if that helps

Sorry, this is really a somewhat weird issue, no final solution here, but debugging procedures and sort of workaround included:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/67459

What is the output of:
xprop -root | grep XKB

Reference:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input

From Intrepid Release Notes quote:
The X.Org configuration file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) still has InputDevice entries for the mouse and keyboard, but they are ignored now because input-hotplug is used. The keyboard settings now come from /etc/default/console-setup; to change them please use sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup. After that, HAL and X need to be restarted (e.g., by rebooting your system).

If in case your xorg.conf has a content
e.g.

Section „InputDevice“
Identifier „Generic Keyboard“
Driver „kbd“
Option „CoreKeyboard“
Option „XkbRules“ „xorg“
Option „XkbModel“ „pc105“
Option „XkbLayout“ „us“
Option „XkbVariant“ „us“
Option „XkbOptions“ „nodeadkeys“ ##in some cases it helped to comment this out
EndSection