left and right arrow keys not working

nspeirs1 · 2013-05-08 15:08:21

Ever since I upgraded to the newest kernel the left and right arrow keys are not working. They do not work in X or in the console. xev and showkeys both don't respond to pressing the left and right arrow keys. Or the delete key, home, pg up, pg down, or end. I'm on a laptop.

ewaller · 2013-05-08 15:13:14

Anything in the output of dmesg?

nspeirs1 · 2013-05-08 17:02:54

nope.

mich41 · 2013-05-08 22:46:21

WTF?

Are you sure these are all keys that don't work?
Do they work in BIOS setup/wind0ze/whatever?
Start watch -n1 cat /proc/interrupts. Does pressing any of these keys increase numbers in the 1: blah blah blah i8042? By how much?
Do you have old kernel packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg to check if they still work? You can install them with pacman -U /var/....

Last edited by mich41 (2013-05-08 23:13:32)

nspeirs1 · 2013-05-08 23:38:06

The keys don't work in the bios, either, and nothing happens in /proc/interrupts. I suppose it may be a hardware problem.

ewaller · 2013-05-09 01:23:42

Could be. I am sure that if missing keys don't give a dmesg entry like:

[209188.692507] atkbd serio0: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x94 on isa0060/serio0).
[209188.692513] atkbd serio0: Use 'setkeycodes e014 <keycode>' to make it known.

then there is not much that can be done inside Linux.

Last edited by ewaller (2013-05-09 01:23:59)

nspeirs1 · 2013-05-09 03:34:45

It just doesn't make any sense to me. Why would 7 keys all of a sudden stop working?

ewaller · 2013-05-09 04:19:25

What flavor laptop? Is this a USB keyboard? PS/2?

mich41 · 2013-05-09 07:56:07

nspeirs1 wrote:

It just doesn't make any sense to me. Why would 7 keys all of a sudden stop working?

It looks like one or few lines on the scanning matrix have been damaged or disconnected from the keyboard controller. Or a firmware bug - this really shouldn't even be possible, but laptop vendors have demonstrated again and again that there is no stupidity they are incapable of

If it's under warranty, you know what to do If not, start with reconnecting the keyboard. If you have a continuity tester, you can test it as well - it's not hard to figure out how it works.

ewaller · 2013-05-09 13:13:47

mich41 wrote:

If you have a continuity tester, you can test it as well - it's not hard to figure out how it works.

.... unless it is is capacitive sensing

Arch Linux

#1 2013-05-08 15:08:21

left and right arrow keys not working

#2 2013-05-08 15:13:14

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#3 2013-05-08 17:02:54

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#4 2013-05-08 22:46:21

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#5 2013-05-08 23:38:06

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#6 2013-05-09 01:23:42

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#7 2013-05-09 03:34:45

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#8 2013-05-09 04:19:25

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#9 2013-05-09 07:56:07

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

#10 2013-05-09 13:13:47

Re: left and right arrow keys not working

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