[orca-list] Orca confused / confusing when switching keyboard layouts

[Elias Oltmanns <eo nebensachen de>]

Hi there,

after setting up Manjaro (an Arch linux derivative), I do have some
issues with Orca that are related to keyboard layout switching. The
system is configured to run Gnome on Xorg, started from the console via
startx.

Instead of the standard German keyboard layout, I often use an
alternative layout called Neo 2. The latter is designed to make lots of
symbols commonly used in programming easily accessible from the base
row. Also, letters have been rearranged in a way that is supposed to
improve writing speed for German text. In order to achieve this,
additional modifier keys have been introduced beside the usual shift
keys. In particular, there is no caps lock, because this key is made
into a modifier key of its own. Consequently, controlling Orca can get
awkward with this layout since we are talking about a laptop keyboard
without a proper insert key here.

So, I have installed IBus and configured it to be able to switch between
the two layouts with super + space. Things seem to be working as
expected: Opening Firefox, for instance, I can enter a web address into
the address bar using either of the two keyboard layouts and switching
in between as I like. Things start to get confusing, however, when I try
to use structural navigation. When I have switched to the standard
German layout, I do have caps lock at my disposal and Orca seems to
react to it. Unfortunately, Orca seems to confuse the letters, though.

In order to illustrate things more clearly, consider the top row of the
standard German layout:
q w e r t z u i o p
In Neo 2 layout, pressing the very same keys will emit the following
letters instead:
x v l c w k h g f q

When the standard German layout is active, I have to press u in order to
move to the next heading and e to move to the next list. Sure enough, u
happens to correspond to h on the Neo 2 layout and l corresponds to e.
It is strange, though, that u really produces the letter u in a text
field and still Orca takes it for an h during structural navigation.

Do you have any suggestions how I can debug my configuration?

Thank you in advance,

Elias