# HG changeset patch # User Eli Zaretskii # Date 996162188 0 # Node ID 446aa2cd256eea81ced650615342e9389392aebb # Parent 88a84a5773fc3da1e5783611be97d03a72b84900 More information about how to find the Meta keys. diff -r 88a84a5773fc -r 446aa2cd256e etc/PROBLEMS --- a/etc/PROBLEMS Thu Jul 26 13:41:54 2001 +0000 +++ b/etc/PROBLEMS Thu Jul 26 15:43:08 2001 +0000 @@ -828,6 +828,37 @@ exactly what happens, but it isn't an Emacs problem in cases we've seen. +* After upgrading to a newer version of Emacs, the Meta key stops working. + +This was reported to happen on a GNU/Linux system distributed by +Mandrake. The reason is that the previous version of Emacs was +modified by Mandrake to make the Alt key act as the Meta key, on a +keyboard where the Windows key is the one which produces the Meta +modifier. A user who started using a newer version of Emacs, which +was not hacked by Mandrake, expected the Alt key to continue to act as +Meta, and was astonished when that didn't happen. + +The solution is to find out what key on your keyboard produces the Meta +modifier, and use that key instead. Try all of the keys to the left +and to the right of the space bar, together with the `x' key, and see +which combination produces "M-x" in the echo area. You can also use +the `xmodmap' utility to show all the keys which produce a Meta +modifier: + + xmodmap -pk | egrep -i "meta|alt" + +A more convenient way of finding out which keys produce a Meta modifier +is to use the `xkbprint' utility, if it's available on your system: + + xkbprint 0:0 /tmp/k.ps + +This produces a PostScript file `/tmp/k.ps' with a picture of your +keyboard; printing that file on a PostScript printer will show what +keys can serve as Meta. + +The `xkeycaps' also shows a visual representation of the current +keyboard settings. It also allows to modify them. + * On OSF/Dec Unix/Tru64/ under X locally or remotely, M-SPC acts as a `compose' key with strange results. See keyboard(5).