How do I set key delay/repeat time? (Xorg 7.4) [SOLVED]

jcs · 2008-12-04 06:44:45

Judging by some of the threads, Syu-ing after only a brief glance at the announcements/forum was probably a mistake (since I need a reliable system for the next few weeks). Fortunately evernthing went well.

The only problem I've had is that the delay before key repeat kicks in is very short (too short for comfort; many accidental doubles). If anyone can help me configure this it would be much appreciated.

Last edited by jcs (2008-12-05 03:35:14)

B-Con · 2008-12-04 19:38:25

I had the same problem. I don't know how to set it in your xorg.conf, but you can use
$ xset r rate MS_DELAY RATE
to set it manually.

From the xset man page:

r       The  r  option controls the autorepeat.  Invoking with "-r", or
        "r off", will disable autorepeat, whereas "r", or  "r on"  will
        enable  autorepeat.   Following  the "-r" or "r" option with an
        integer keycode between  0  and  255  will  disable  or  enable
        autorepeat on that key respectively, but only if it makes sense
        for the particular keycode.  Keycodes below 8 are not typically
        valid  for  this  command.   Example: "xset -r 10" will disable
        autorepeat for the "1" key on the top row of  an  IBM  PC  key‐
        board.

        If  the  server supports the XFree86-Misc extension, or the XKB
        extension, then a parameter of 'rate' is accepted and should be
        followed  by  zero, one or two numeric values. The first speci‐
        fies the delay before autorepeat starts and the  second  speci‐
        fies the repeat rate.  In the case that the server supports the
        XKB extension, the delay is the number of  milliseconds  before
        autorepeat  starts,  and  the rate is the number of repeats per
        second.  If the rate or delay is not given, it will be  set  to
        the default value.

[edit]
Forgot the required "rate" keyword.

Last edited by B-Con (2008-12-04 19:43:34)

jcs · 2008-12-05 03:34:55

Worked great. Thank you.

piete · 2009-01-02 19:46:26

I was going to ask that how to automate it but playing with the Openbox configurations I found the answer after having tried all the possible methods mentioned in different threads. None of them worked for me but what did work was to create a file "autostart.sh" to the ~/.config/openbox/ folder (if it doesn't exist) and put the xset command in there. I guess every WM has its own startup script (the Wiki mentions this at least for Openbox).

On a side note, when I installed Arch and Xorg a few weeks ago, I got the usual lockup problem starting X. Adding the Option "AllowEmptyInput" "off" to xorg.conf helped, but when I installed hal and some other stuff it made my key repeat very fast. But the plusside is that now I don't even have to have the xorg.conf file.

Last edited by piete (2009-01-02 19:48:20)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-04 06:44:45

How do I set key delay/repeat time? (Xorg 7.4) [SOLVED]

#2 2008-12-04 19:38:25

Re: How do I set key delay/repeat time? (Xorg 7.4) [SOLVED]

#3 2008-12-05 03:34:55

Re: How do I set key delay/repeat time? (Xorg 7.4) [SOLVED]

#4 2009-01-02 19:46:26

Re: How do I set key delay/repeat time? (Xorg 7.4) [SOLVED]

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