You are not logged in.

#1 2020-08-08 01:37:27

emphire
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2007-03-21
Posts: 203

[Solved] Switching virtual consoles and some keys stop working

When I first log into gnome everything is fine but it seems that after running for a while, most keyboard shortcuts stop working (super doesn't bring up the dash screen, alt-tab doesn't work, I can't switch desktops with the keyboard (ctl-alt-down)).

I also can't switch between virtual consoles with the keyboard (ctl-alt-F*). A reboot seems to get everything going again but it would be nice not to have to reboot constantly.

Has anyone else run into anything similar or have any ideas?

I tried xev and confirmed that the keystrokes are being received by xorg.

Last edited by emphire (2020-08-28 04:05:25)

Offline

#2 2020-08-08 19:25:46

porcelain1
Member
Registered: 2020-01-18
Posts: 97

Re: [Solved] Switching virtual consoles and some keys stop working

When I was trying KMSCON I got stuck at it a few times and was unable to change to another tty using the alt+F* key combination. Eventually I learned the command

chvt 2

which will, for instance, change the current tty to tty2. Inside X11, I can only properly run the command with sudo, and this is normal according to the answer of this 2010 question on Super User:

https://superuser.com/questions/69807/w … ot-under-x

Maybe if you can keep a terminal open and run commands on it, you could escape from the X11 instance running Gnome and sort it out outside of it if that helps, instead of relying on reboots.
I have never used Gnome, but I hope this is useful smile


Behemoth, wake up!

Offline

#3 2020-08-09 01:57:33

emphire
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2007-03-21
Posts: 203

Re: [Solved] Switching virtual consoles and some keys stop working

porcelain1 wrote:

chvt 2

Thanks, that got me into a new virtual terminal. Once there I noticed some keys were not working (a,e and some others). Funny thing is, I plugged in a second USB keyboard so I could login and suddenly the original keyboard was working fine again (I could change virtual terminals and use all the shortcuts in gnome).

I wonder what might be causing it. Seems it might not be specific to gnome if the keyboard is behaving erratically in a virtual console as well. It must be something that gets reset when a new USB keyboard gets plugged in. Perhaps it could be d-bus related?

Offline

#4 2020-08-10 01:19:11

porcelain1
Member
Registered: 2020-01-18
Posts: 97

Re: [Solved] Switching virtual consoles and some keys stop working

Very funny indeed.
I experienced similar issues when trying KMSCON, when suddenly all keypresses were being mapped to incorrect key, but it was KMSCON specific and everything was fine when going back to another tty or X. I didn`t bother to troubleshoot since I couldn`t configure the keyboard layout in the first place.

Maybe this can help:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_input

I dunno how to troubleshoot this, but you could try this evtest as described above before and after things go awry. Then we can see if the detected scancodes and mapped keycodes change. I guess keyboard layout is unrelated, since X and virtual consoles handle them separately. Maybe it fixes itself when connecting another keyboard because some auto-detect-thing could be called, just a theory.

emphire wrote:

[...] Perhaps it could be d-bus related?

I don`t think so. At least the article itself doesn`t mention it haha

BTW my keyboard layout on X is mangled after disconnecting and reconnecting it when trying evtest! But only my USB keyboard... the keyboard layout of the laptop is still the same. Anyway, I`m setxkbmap`ing again I guess


Behemoth, wake up!

Offline

#5 2020-08-28 04:05:05

emphire
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2007-03-21
Posts: 203

Re: [Solved] Switching virtual consoles and some keys stop working

Thanks for your help. The problem doesn't seem to have come back since I upgraded and rebooted so I'll mark this as solved.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB