In your software and updates, on the first tab, it says “Download From:” with a drop down menu. Can you set that to “Main Server” and then try installing dconf-editor again?
Yes, that is the file however, (and this is my fault, I got ahead of myself) let’s first try using dconf-editor as outlined above. If you add it to your profile, I am not yet sure what effect this will have if you want to alternate between languages later.
Ahh, got it
So, back to dconf- how do I get this thing on the machine now?
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor
Sorry, your suggestion to change server had not shown at that time— this is what you want? The option was already turned off
It’s already off…
Bicyu… I hate your computer. 
Well, for fun… I wonder what would happen if you turn it on?
Now that you switched to Main Server, which it should have been all along (And it may relate to your updates since it was not on Main), you might paste into terminal
sudo apt update
followed with
sudo apt dist-upgrade
Hey, get in the hate line mate!
No queue jumpers here thank you.
Re main server- I have no idea where that is- Ireland- but for China it is too slow and usually ends with it timing out- and as it did this time. I will not use China for obvious reasons. So I use either Korea or Japan! So there!
When I turn it on- we think alike- it just told me it would be activated next rerun or something.
Seeing as it is in MAIN server now, I will run those commands and see if it updates- can I only do that from MAIN? Why not Korea?
I honestly do not know the answer to this question. I do know that I have noticed that for international users (I am in the USA) that often, not being on the Main Server leads to things missing. An example in this very thread was that you could not install a very common app until you switched to the Main Server.
True!
The update timed out trying Vivaldi [don’t use it anyway] and something else, but the upgrade went quickly.
Not much to it- this is what you were expecting?
R anny@onyx:~$ sudo apt dist-upgrade
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Calculating upgrade… Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libegl1-mesa libllvm9 linux-headers-5.3.0-40 linux-headers-5.3.0-40-generic
linux-image-5.3.0-40-generic linux-modules-5.3.0-40-generic
linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-40-generic uno-libs3
Use ‘sudo apt autoremove’ to remove them.
The following packages will be upgraded:
python3-apport python3-problem-report
2 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Need to get 92.6 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 python3-problem-report all 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18 [10.3 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 python3-apport all 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18 [82.2 kB]
Fetched 92.6 kB in 2s (51.8 kB/s)
(Reading database … 313032 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/python3-problem-report_2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18_all.deb …
Unpacking python3-problem-report (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18) over (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.17) …
Preparing to unpack …/python3-apport_2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18_all.deb …
Unpacking python3-apport (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18) over (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.17) …
Setting up python3-problem-report (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18) …
Setting up python3-apport (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.18) …
ranny@onyx:~$
I’m thinking we gave it our best shot here buddy but…
I am inclined to reinstall the O/S now.
I am guessing you are not part of ZORIN, so I might copy this and send it to their support devs- just for their info!
Was not sure what to expect. Looks like python3 was only upgrade needed.
Reinstalling the OS seems like a major hassle when facing doing it. But I can tell you from LOTS of experience doing it (In exploring how things work, I have fried my system many times. I tend to poke around in root doing things I shouldn’t to see what will happen if I do…) that once done, it never was as bad as feared.
The most important thing is to BACKUP your Home Folder. You might ignore the .config and the .local folders this time around…
Once installed, switch to Main Server again before installing your apps.
Sad to say, that dconf-editor idea was the last trick. Outta ideas after that.
Setting xkb in terminal should have worked and that the setting in gsettings was already off… I am at a loss.
Well, hassle is relative. We have spent 2 days on this and I had a day before on it- so, in the scheme of things, a re-inst is not so bad!
You gave it everything and I for one greatly appreciate your time in helping me.
Cheers
Hi @zabadabadoo- just following up on your start- tools- input suggestion. In my grid set up it is listed as simply Input Method. I compared the faulty device with this one, they were identical.
To be sure I then reset the default US and removed all others. Restarted- still same issue.
But curiously, the top bar still showed the other language alternatives. Even though they had, I thought been removed. They also worked, for example, I was able to switch to and type in Chinese.
However the bug was evident there also because even though it displayed Chinese characters it was in fact gibberish.
I am WAY WAY out of my depth here, but at a guess it would seem that what ever changes we make via the keyboard, either pasting or typing aren’t being auctioned. That might account for why your setxkbmap us failed @Aravisian
Cheers all, dinner time.
@Bicyu, OK I have been offline this morning and have just read though today’s sad exchange with @Aravisian trying to sort it out. My suggestion to do Region settings screenshot was to see if that gave any clues, also the Input Method ref again to see if any discrepencies. Sometimes a OS re-install is the least gruesome option if you have planned ahead with Home partition backed up and list of apps you have added. (I have taken screenshots from “Software” to list my installed apps and extensions.)
I have also found a terminal command to show all installed apps useful:
dpkg --get-selections | awk ‘{print $1}’
Which I copy and paste the terminal output to a text file and save in Documents.
Ah. That may be more compact than 5 picture files.
And you can copy /paste package names right over into terminal or Synaptic with ease.
It was a great suggestion and I followed it through with the same idea. But, as I said, everything checked out.
I used to run Ubuntu and was very familiar with having to reinstall the O/S- but for, what, 3 years ? I have been spoilt by Zorin so I am into rusty territory now.
I don’t have too many apps etc to back up and all my docs and vitals are held on a portable drive, we also have 4 other machines here all backed up so it’s just my DT tweaks and settings.
I would sincerely like to thank both of you for your time and suggestions. I really appreciated it.
I still don’t know why the commands we inputed were not saved or actioned. Looking at everything it is exactly as it should be, yet that is not the reality. It is as if there is something else wrong that is stopping what we do in the keyboard settings from working. I guess that is one of the mysteries of the universe!