Linux Mint Alt + F4 not working/Incorrect keyboard layout

John D K -

The keyboard combination of ALT + F4 stopped working after upgrade to Linux Mint 19 ( from Linux Mint 17). Actually it was working unexpectedly:

  • it's switching to TT4
  • close the current window

Before it was closing the window without any other actions. I notice also some of the keyboard combination we not working as well. I searched for possible reasons and solutions and this is what I found:

  • Enabled Fn key might cause this problem

    • In order to disable function key on your keyboard you can press the Fn + Escape (for most laptops)

  • The second reason which might cause the issue is related to keyboard setup

    • In order to fix it you need to type in terminal:
sudo kbd_mode -s

and now ALT + F4 should work normally.

What happen in this case? The keyboard mode is changed. You can check the current keyboard setup by:

sudo kbd_mode

In my case the modes were:

  • xlate (8-bit) mode
  • raw (scancode) mode

More info about the problem: