Arch Linux

Bevan

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 100

shift key 'hangs' randomly

Hi!

For a few weeks my keyboard shows some strange behaviour: When using the shift key, it sometimes doesn't get released again. Then I can write caps only, which is very annoying... After a few seconds up to one minute, everything works fine again.

I used showkey to have a look at the keycodes, sent by my keyboard. Result: My keyboard works perfectly, pressing shift does the following: "keycode  42 press, keycode  42 release". It seems that X doesn't respect the key release.

Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be?

I'm using Gnome 2.30.0 with xorg-server 1.7.6-3 on x86_64. xorg.conf only contains configuration for my nvidia-card, so keyboard should be configured automatically. It's configured as evdev-device in gnome.

Thanks,
Michael

Last edited by Bevan (2010-05-18 21:52:24)

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

I would try a different keyboard, I actually suspect it is a hardware rather than software fault.

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Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

Bevan

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 100

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

As I said showkey shows a "keycode  42 release" when I release the shift key. I tested this while the key hung. Could it be a hardware fault anyway?

dejavu

Member

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 103

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

I noticed the same...

using gnome, but have also enabled the radeon repository from perry3d.

Are you using vdr xine sometimes?

Bevan

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 100

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

I'm not using vdr xine, but I use tvtime for watching TV. I will try to find out if there is any connection to my/our problem.

Goico

Member

Registered: 2009-09-06

Posts: 16

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

It's happening to me on my desktop box too (wich uses gnome), but not on my laptop (running awesome) .. so I guess this is Gnome's fault someway

thetrojan01

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 13

Website

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

No, it's not a Gnome's bug, I have expirienced this problem too (check that out: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=87880 ) with just wmii window manager, plus with kde and having two different keyboards tested (USB Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, Logitech Access PS/2 kbd) I've now installed Ubuntu 10 TLS, and the problem remains, but I don't remember having it with Ubuntu 9 (I think it's... karmic koala? ). So, it's not a distrubution problem, neither a keyboard problem, neither a Desktop Manager/Window manager problem...

What could it be?!

Last edited by thetrojan01 (2010-05-27 21:15:57)

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Don't pray. If you are unlucky enough, you'll get errors in your terminal!

Bevan

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 100

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

Xorg could be the connection between all the affected systems.

An interesting point is also that you, trojan01, dejavu and I use a TV Card (Pinnacle PCTV in my case, too). But I can't imagine, how this can cause this kind of problem. I don't use an IR and Xorg.0.log doesn't show anything about Pinnacle devices.

thetrojan01

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 13

Website

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

Note that i have set the ir device to be ignored in my hal configuration.

Last edited by thetrojan01 (2010-05-27 22:15:46)

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Don't pray. If you are unlucky enough, you'll get errors in your terminal!

Bevan

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 100

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

I didn't notice any problems for some time now. thetrojan and dejavu, do you still have this kind of problem? Maybe it has been solved by some update?!

thetrojan01

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 13

Website

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

I didn't notice any problems for some time now. thetrojan and dejavu, do you still have this kind of problem? Maybe it has been solved by some update?!

Unfortunately yes. (I'm using ubuntu 10 this period of time)

Last edited by thetrojan01 (2010-06-18 00:18:28)

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Don't pray. If you are unlucky enough, you'll get errors in your terminal!

thetrojan01

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 13

Website

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

I still have that problem in another computer, running just X11 and wmii, it also has a tv tuner card.

So, linux X11 + tv card = strange Shift key behaviour...

Note: Shift key randomly gets "on" ONLY in X11, not in console evnironment!

Last edited by thetrojan01 (2010-08-01 13:39:30)

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Don't pray. If you are unlucky enough, you'll get errors in your terminal!

x545

Member

Registered: 2010-08-21

Posts: 1

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

hi folks,
I HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME Problem. (As you can see)
I also have a Pinnacle PCTV!!!
I'M USING debian sid with xserver-xorg-core 1.7.7-3. It must have something todo with X, because after switching to console the problem always goes away. I tried 3 keyboards, so it's not the keyboard.

Do you have a solution?

thetrojan01

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 13

Website

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

Does anyone know how and where could we report this bug? I tried Xorg's irc channel but it used to be dead.

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Don't pray. If you are unlucky enough, you'll get errors in your terminal!

dcc24

Member

Registered: 2009-10-31

Posts: 732

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

Use the xorg ML at freedesktop: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg

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It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. (Mark Twain)

My AUR packages

mickey86

Member

Registered: 2010-08-29

Posts: 1

Re: shift key 'hangs' randomly

Hello!

I have the same problem! And I have a Pinnacle PC TV card too; I'm running Debian squeeze, X.org/KDE4.5…

I'm experiencing another similar strange behaviour with input devices: focus is lost randomly; maybe a related bug?

Can someone confirm this other bug?

I went on X.org ML archives but I did not find any topic about that neither in the bugzilla interface. Is there anyone who reported those bugs? I'm going to report them.

Bug reported there: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29868

Last edited by mickey86 (2010-08-29 12:44:20)