KeyboardEvent.key reports an incorrect code on Linux for non-US keyboards when holding ctrl down

[as-cii]

Electron version: 1.3.9 (but it doesn't work properly on Chrome 54 either)

When receiving keydown events on Linux from a non-US keyboard layout, the .key property will report an incorrect value if the user also presses Ctrl. In Atom, we have circumvented this issue by directly accessing the X11 APIs, but some users are experiencing problems on operating systems that have GNOME installed. This codepen illustrates the bug:

• Create a VM and install Ubuntu on it.
• Install Chrome.
• Add the Colemak US keyboard layout.
• Open the codepen with Google Chrome and toggle the DevTools Console.
• Press L: notice that the console prints i.
• While holding Ctrl, press L: notice that the console prints l.

Could this be fixed in Electron somehow? Alternatively, can the Electron team submit a patch to Chromium that solves this? Fixing it upstream feels easier than doing it in a library because we should have direct access to the operating system KeyPress events. Thoughts? 💭

/cc: @groundwater @zcbenz

[Ben3eeE]

Another report of this where Ctrl-UpArrow resolves to things like Ctrl-katakana at https://discuss.atom.io/t/ctrl-arrow-key-sends-unrelated-combination-to-atom/36405/5

[kevinsawicki]

Looks like this could be https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=633838 and fixed in Chrome 56.

If that is the same issue then the patch for it in https://codereview.chromium.org/2474083002 looks pretty small and probably could be applied against Electron's current Chrome version.

@as-cii would you want this backported to 1.3.x or is Atom moving to 1.4 soon?

[kevinsawicki]

This does appear to be fixed in Chrome 56, tested on Ubuntu 16.04 with Colemak.

[kevinsawicki]

I have a patch for this against Chrome 52 over at https://github.com/electron/libchromiumcontent/compare/control-dom-key-patch-52

With it applied against Electron 1.3.12 I can no longer reproduce the issue on Ubuntu 16.04.

[as-cii]

Awesome, @kevinsawicki. Thank you so much! Looking forward to seeing this shipped in Electron 1.3.13 and use it in Atom. 💯