Keyboard layout - certain keys work with AltGr, other doesn't

Posted by user23122 on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by user23122
Published on 2014-08-12T12:02:51Z Indexed on 2014/08/25 10:34 UTC
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I run Ubuntu 12.04 in VirtualBox 4.3.14 on Windows 7 with a Swedish keyboard layout. In Windows everything works fine but in Ubuntu some keys/characters (the most important for a programmer) doesn't work.

This is the result from pressing the keys in the top row

1234567890+´   (Unmodified top row on keyboard)
 @£$€ {[]}\    (Windows with AltGr)
¡ £$€¥     ±   (Ubuntu with "AltGr")

More characters are broken (pipe | is a notable example) but the top row is the biggest problem. I can workaround this by enabling "direct connection" from my USB keyboard to VirtualBox but then I have to manually disable that every time I switch out of VirtualBox.

I have tried different keyboard layout, sometimes @ et al works but then other characters are broken. I also tried sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration with default values, but it didn't change anything.

I have guest additions installed (from the built in virtual CD). I got my VB disk image from a colleague who does not have this problem, however, he does not have guest additions installed (and hence can't use a higher resolution than 1024x768, and I need to run Ecplipse...). He also have different installation of Virtual Box and Windows.

For example, the key for 2 should, in Ubuntu, produce four different characters, 2"²@. The first three works fine, including superscript 2 that requires AltGr-Shift-2, it is just plain AltGr-2 to get @ that does not work on this key (and all the other keys I have problem with).

Any ideas for a fix?

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