Arch Linux

yanom

Member

Registered: 2013-06-30

Posts: 36

How to deal with mechanical keyboard key bounce (AKA chattering)?

So I recently got a used mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. It's great, except that some of the keys "bounce" or "chatter", that is, one key press sends multiple characters to the computer. I'm aware that this may be a hardware issue, but until I ensure that it is and find all of the offending keys to desolder and replace them, I want to fix it in software. I've googled on how to fix this on Linux, and several sources redirected me to this, which seems to be describing sort of what I want to fix, but I have no idea how to use the information on that page. Anyone else have this issue? How do I fix this?

TheChickenMan

Member

From: United States

Registered: 2015-07-25

Posts: 354

Re: How to deal with mechanical keyboard key bounce (AKA chattering)?

You use the command "xset" with that argument and the device name of your keyboard. You'll have to do it in command line and tinker with it until you get the value just right. Then make a bash script that runs at login to execute the commands after each reboot.

---

If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.
Niels Bohr

mich41

Member

Registered: 2012-06-22

Posts: 796

Re: How to deal with mechanical keyboard key bounce (AKA chattering)?

This is available in "accessibility settings" of many desktop environments because it's intended to help people who hit keys multiple times due to Parkinson's or things like that.

The documentation you found is for the Xorg accessibility API. This can only be called from C code, like your DE's settings manager.

I'm not aware of any command line tool which knows how to set it. I don't think xset can.

winvicta

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 1

Re: How to deal with mechanical keyboard key bounce (AKA chattering)?

I noticed occasional key bouncing on my freshly installed arch linux laptop. I have not installed any desktop environment, and am using a mechanical keyboard (HHKB Professional 2). The command "xset" did it for me.
At the command line, enter "xset q | grep 'delay'" to see the current settings for auto repeat, assuming auto repeat is turned on.
Change the setting values using, for example, "xset r rate 500 25".
As always, use "xset --help" to learn what it can do.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,645

Re: How to deal with mechanical keyboard key bounce (AKA chattering)?

Thanks for the contribution, but this thread is very old. Please do not necrobump.

Closing.