• A SuSE-Linux Upgrade to 7.1 (i.e. to XFree86 4.0.2) seems to fail about making a softlink sometimes. A suggestion from a (german-speaking) Usenet group: 
        From: Harald Schreiber
    Message-ID: <m31ysycwxj.fsf@harald-schreiber.de>
    Newsgroups: de.comp.os.unix.x11
    Subject: Re: Fehlerhafte Tastaturbelegung XFree86 4.0.2
    Date: 16 Feb 2001 19:19:52 +0100

    cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11
    rm -Rf xkb
    ln -s /etc/X11/xkb .
    According to Message-ID: <m3pugicn46.fsf@harald-schreiber.de>, they have fixed this for an updated package at their site, meanwhile.

  • Alternatively in another thread it was suggested to 'mkdir /var/state/xkb' if you are lacking this directory, as the installation of 4.0.2 makes the softlink /usr/X11/lib/X11/xkb/compiled pointing to /var/state/xkb. Original (in a german-lang Usenet group, though): 
        From: Sönke Müller-Lund
    Newsgroups: de.comp.os.unix.x11
    Subject: Re: Xfree4.0.2 und deutsche Tastatur?
    Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 21:56:16 +0100
    Message-ID: <3A85AAF0.88D8140B@ki.comcity.de>

  • I also remember the hint to make a softlink from /var/X11R6/lib/xkb to /var/state/xkb.

  • So the proper solution ("what symbolic link exactly is still lacking?") will depend on your distribution, what you are having already and how you've gotten there.

    You could strace(1) your Xserver and see where it fails: 

        $ strace -e trace=open,access,stat -f -o log /usr/X11R6/bin/X
    (or another more appropriate Xserver binary in that directory)

  • If you can't find another fix after an upgrade:

    Even the XFree86-FAQ suggests, that you disable the XKB extensions by starting the server with the "-kb" option or by adding the keyword "XkbDisable" to your XF86Config file.

    However, now you will need an appropriate Xmodmap file instead. But at least you will always be able to succeed with this basic (and thus more complicated) way.

    If you use the xmodmap way, you might find some inspiration in the numerous xmodmap files, that are offered by Mandrake (one of the german mirrors, Aachen), search your mirror on the mirror list. Usually you'll find the keymaps in .../<mandrake-version>/i586/Mandrake/mdkinst/usr/share/xmodmap/. German Users for example could try xmodmap.de_nodeadkeys.

    On the other hand, if you only still need a few corrections for your current keymap, you could just fix it manually, if you feel like.