Keyboard Parentheses, left and right parenthesis, not working when remote desktop and using wine, notepad++

[ohlogic]

Description of the Issue

So for the longest time, I'd remote desktop using remmina (via ssh tunnel) into a linux mint machine and the right and left parenthesis would not work in notepad++ (running in wine). Though the problem does not happen when running gedit over the remote desktop remmina session. I was tediously copying and pasting right and left parenthesis into notepad++ or use gedit instead, ya that sucked. So now, I have a workaround temporary fix so the parentheses work in notepad++ while remote desktop with remmina until the notepad++ developers can figure this problem out.

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

1. remmina into a linux desktop
2. install wine and run notepad++
3. try and use the left or right parenthesis, it is not working for me

Expected Behavior

The right and left parenthesis should work as expected when I press each key on the keyboard.

Actual Behavior

When pressing either the right or left parenthesis there is no input to the notepad++ text editor.

Debug Information

Notepad++ v7.9.1 (64-bit)
Build time : Nov 2 2020 - 01:07:46
Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : ON
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS Name : Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)
OS Build : 7601.0
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
WINE : 5.22
Plugins : mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll NppSnippets.dll

TEMPORARY FIX

The temporary solution is to use xmodmap.

The temporary solution until the developers of notepad++ can figure this out is this.

run in a command window the following when the linux machine first boots up:

xmodmap -e "keycode 187 = Shift_L 0"

xmodmap -e "keycode 188 = Shift_L 9"

There, that is the temporary fix.

BTW: I used the command
xmodmap -pke

to determine what the temporary fix should be.

xmodmap -pke
((default))
keycode 187 = parenleft NoSymbol parenleft
keycode 188 = parenright NoSymbol parenright

and then the temporary fixed result from xmodmap -pke
((temporary fix))
keycode 187 = Shift_L 0 Shift_L 0
keycode 188 = Shift_L 9 Shift_L 9

Finally to reset the keyboard back to default setting:
((to reset keyboard back to default))
setxkbmap us

Or reset the linux machine, as xmodmap -e is just temporary until reboot.

[Tey]

There is a bug in x11vnc (see here) that really looks like yours. The solution is to prevent x11vnc from remapping some key codes, using an argument like -skip_keycodes 187,188 when launching it. I had the same problem, found your workaround first then the x11vnc ticket, so maybe it will help you too 😉

Also, it is possible to persist your changes to xmodmap on most distro by writing the new map to ~/.Xmodmap (details here).

That's not a Notepad++ bug though.