Interesting keyboard problem

Liuuutas · 2010-07-21 18:07:14

Hi guys,

It all started with wanting to fix one awesome bug (FS#655), but it actually turn out to be {more interesting]/{less possible to solve} problem.

So, the idea is that if you have a british keyboard (not a british layout) and press "F1", "2","w","s" or "x" while holding "Caps_Lock+Shift" you do not get any X events even when you do not have any window manager running.

I have even tried it with french usb keyboard in tty via showkey. While holding caps+shift and pressing those for keys, nothing happened. So I am thinking that the reason might be somewhere deeper.

Is anybody in a mood to tinker? Can anybody reproduce the aforementioned behaviour?

Cheers

EDIT: since talking with ablepahrus (as it turns out, fellow Archer) in #awesome channel, I thought maybe it might be Arch Linux specific? Can anybody test this claim, because I have no access to a live cd or another computer with linux...

EDIT2: add to our list the key "F1"

Last edited by Liuuutas (2010-07-27 18:59:30)

knopwob · 2010-07-21 19:22:34

hey,

i can confirm this. I have mapped mod4 to caps_lock to use it as my meta key for dwm, since thinkpads don't have a windows key. And i move windows to another desktop via mod4+shift+number... and i can move them to 1,3,4...9 but not do desktop number 2. But it works with other keybindings, so i guess it's the same problem.

and in a real tty while holding caps_lock+shift and typing something i get the uppercase version of the letter i typed, except of 2,w,s or x as you said. There nothing is echoed on the screen. I will test this later on a windows machine, to sort out, that it is a hardware or BIOS problem.

This is very interesting.. I wonder whats the cause of this.

Liuuutas · 2010-07-21 19:28:29

Precisely, it is very interesting. I have also a Thinkpad. Can it be Thinkpad related.

Looking forward to see other people confirming/investigating it.

knopwob · 2010-07-21 19:31:40

I've noticed the same behavior on an asus laptop, so it's not thinkpad related. But i've tested it on windows 7 right now (on a laptop where the problem occures under arch linux) and it doesn't happen here. So it seems to be a linux/arch linux problem.

Edit:
I forgot to mention: i'm using german keyboards with an us-layout set in the rc.conf. Maybe it's a problem with the keymapping.

Edit2:
There are some wrong informations in this post. See my bost below

Last edited by knopwob (2010-07-21 20:12:35)

jac · 2010-07-21 19:36:34

I don't have a british keyboard (as far as I know, it's a generic dell keyboard), and I have this problem. But, it's not the keys for those letters/2, it's the actual buttons. I'm using dvorak, so it doesn't work with '2' ',' 'o' or 'q' (the left ring finger column). Neat bug

Last edited by jac (2010-07-21 19:37:42)

knopwob · 2010-07-21 20:11:50

i have to take back, what i've said before..

this bug doesn't occure on my asus laptop (i remembered it wrong) and since i've tested it under windows on the same laptop i can't say if it's a hardware problem or not. But i have an almost identical setup an all machines (same kernel, same layout etc).

So what i can say at the moment is, that it occures on two different thinkpads but not on my asus laptop. I've just tested through all of them out of curiousity.

Liuuutas · 2010-07-21 20:18:10

Ok, my girlfriend has Thinkpad with us keyboard and she could reproduce the same bug... So Dell and Thinkpads had it... Asus not... strange...

knopwob · 2010-07-21 20:56:36

i tested i bit more around:

so build in keyboard of thinkpads show this behaviour. But a logitech usb-keyboard works just fine on the same machine. So i guess this is a hardware issue.

Last edited by knopwob (2010-07-21 21:05:38)

Liuuutas · 2010-07-21 21:12:51

Well, when I connect a french usb keyboard, I can reproduce this behaviour.
So it is interesting what might be the underlying cause. My guess it might be a kernel problem/limitation and not hw limitation, because it does not make sense not to be able use this key combination.

Last edited by Liuuutas (2010-07-22 07:13:50)

Liuuutas · 2010-07-27 09:21:44

Can some help me to test whether this bug is valid with other distribution live cds?

@ jac: Do you have a thinkpad?

@ all: Could it be possible if everybody lists hardware specs if he/she can reproduce the bug?

Last edited by Liuuutas (2010-07-27 12:41:02)

jac · 2010-07-27 15:55:28

No, I have a desktop I pieced together What specs do you want? I'll see if I can find a live/blank cd somewhere and report back...

Liuuutas · 2010-07-27 16:46:52

Thank you very much. The specs that matters I guess are only mother board and the keyboard, although I am not sure about the motherboard part... What do you think, should I submit the bug to kernel bugzilla? or should we first see if it is arch specific?

Liuuutas · 2010-07-27 18:51:48

One Gentoo user reported to me, that it doesn't work properly as well. As far as I can remember he has a Dell laptop. He also pointed out to me, that F1 key is also in our list, so it gets interesting, whether its hw, BIOS or linux kernel problem, because nothing else make sense.

EDIT: The same friend tried it on windows, and gues what, windows do not recognise the keys as well... I guess it would be nice to know BIOS versions of the computers where it is possible to reproduce the bug.

Last edited by Liuuutas (2010-07-27 19:21:40)

Leonid.I · 2010-07-28 00:44:58

Ubuntu 9.10 desktop here (can not test arch atm) -- everything works OK (in X).

Liuuutas · 2010-07-28 07:03:25

@ Leonid.I: What kind of computer do you have? What keyboard?

Leonid.I · 2010-07-28 15:11:19

Desktop. Specs:

-cur_work~> lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82925X/XE Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82925X/XE PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FR/FRW (ICH6R/ICH6RW) SATA Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G71 [GeForce 7300 GS] (rev a1)
80:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
-cur_work~> cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 15
model        : 4
model name    : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
stepping    : 1
cpu MHz        : 2800.030
cache size    : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug    : no
hlt_bug        : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 5
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc up pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr
bogomips    : 5600.06
clflush size    : 64
power management:
-cur_work~> uname -a
Linux bird 2.6.31-20-generic #58-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 12 05:23:09 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

I used two PS/2 keyboards. One of them is logitech, another -- tektronic or something.

However, this is neither the latest kernel, nor a vanilla one. On the other hand, I don't expect that Ubuntu people patch the kernel that heavily.
Also, I am running GNOME, which by itself may intercept keys.

PS: I will probably get to my arch machine later this week -- currently I'm approx. 1500 miles away.

Last edited by Leonid.I (2010-07-28 15:14:23)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-21 18:07:14

Interesting keyboard problem

#2 2010-07-21 19:22:34

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#3 2010-07-21 19:28:29

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#4 2010-07-21 19:31:40

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#5 2010-07-21 19:36:34

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#6 2010-07-21 20:11:50

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#7 2010-07-21 20:18:10

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#8 2010-07-21 20:56:36

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#9 2010-07-21 21:12:51

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#10 2010-07-27 09:21:44

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#11 2010-07-27 15:55:28

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#12 2010-07-27 16:46:52

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#13 2010-07-27 18:51:48

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#14 2010-07-28 00:44:58

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#15 2010-07-28 07:03:25

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

#16 2010-07-28 15:11:19

Re: Interesting keyboard problem

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