openSUSE 11.1, 64 bits, with kde 4.2.3 from kde42 repos on a Toshiba Satellite laptop (this is a large laptop with numeric keypad, see below).
I enabled (I'm translating from Spanish) "Keyboard layouts" on System settings -> Language and region -> Keyboard layouts. Then, on Advanced tab y setted the "compose key" to be the "windows key". The "compose system" worked as intended, but I faced two problems:
- The multimedia keys did not work after that.
- On every session, the first time I pressed Alt or Ctrl, NumLock was "un-locked" and I needed to press it twice in order to reactivate the numeric keypad. After that, for the rest of the session it worked as expected.
By disabling the "keyboard layouts" thing (and after restarting the session) the multimedia keys returned to life and NumLock remained locked.
It seems that the use of xkb options conflicts with something. Any idea?
I want to know if this is kde specific or openSUSE specific... or my-unfortunate-laptop specific.
Thanks!

I can confirm that keyboard layouts never worked for me either ( Acer Aspire laptop ) except it caused keys to become "sticky" meaning they would just keep repeating themselves until pressed again for me.

I think it is a xkb issue rather than a KDE/Distro/Hardware problem...

Thanks! I'm not alone in this world...

I've been having intermittent problems under openSUSE 11.1 with various editions of
KDE4.2 on my HP dv9000z laptop (AMD64 Turion64 X2 with NVIDIA GeForce 6150).

The multimedia keys - specifically, the volume up, volume down, and mute keys
stopped working after swallowing a recent round of KDE 4.2.3 updates.

In addition, I've had occasional problems with the key repeat not working. It is at
the moment, but I fear that it might not the next time I boot or login.

I've tried setting the keyboard to "Microsoft Pro" per one suggestion in an openSUSE
Bugzilla but that didn't work this time, so I'm kind of stuck and frustrated. The list of
available keyboard mappings for Compaq/HP is rather unhelpful.

n1ho wrote:I've been having intermittent problems under openSUSE 11.1 with various editions of
KDE4.2 on my HP dv9000z laptop (AMD64 Turion64 X2 with NVIDIA GeForce 6150).

The multimedia keys - specifically, the volume up, volume down, and mute keys
stopped working after swallowing a recent round of KDE 4.2.3 updates.

In addition, I've had occasional problems with the key repeat not working. It is at
the moment, but I fear that it might not the next time I boot or login.

I've tried setting the keyboard to "Microsoft Pro" per one suggestion in an openSUSE
Bugzilla but that didn't work this time, so I'm kind of stuck and frustrated. The list of
available keyboard mappings for Compaq/HP is rather unhelpful.

Problem solved by installing kde4-kmix-4.2.3-1.4 - this installation was an upgrade
from openSUSE 11.0 and I have had problems keeping my KDE4.2 stuff at the right
rev level. I was a bit over-aggressive with my "upgrading" and things got fouled up.
I'm now using the correct repositories (I think). *Phew* - another headache gone!