keyboard problems

keyboard problems

[Thomas Graichen]

i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
- this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
(i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

a lot of thanks in advance

t

p.s.: it appears both on the console and under x - so it has
      to - if software - a problem in the kbd driver

--
thomas.graichen@innominate.de
technical director                                       innominate AG
clustering & security                                networking people
tel: +49.30.308806-13 fax: -77 web: http://innominate.de pgp: /pgp/tgr

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: keyboard problems

[Nelson Abramson]

Thomas Graichen wrote:

> i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
> standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
> followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
> space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
> - this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
> problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
> wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
> (i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

This is a well known issue with the usb keyboard driver.  It was a a
relatively lengthy thread a few months ago with no (AFAIK) solution,
other than "will be fixed in the future".

It has to do with depressing three keys at a time.  It takes a little
getting used to, but now, except for the occasional moment of serious
energy, I no longer strike three simultaneous keys on my Sawtooth.

HTH
--Nelson Abramson


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Re: keyboard problems

[David A. Gatwood]

On 1 Aug 2000, Thomas Graichen wrote:

> i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
> standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
> followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
> space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
> - this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
> problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
> wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
> (i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

I believe I've experienced this as well.  As I recall, it occurs when two
non-modifier keys are pressed nearly simultaneously.  I suspect the issue
is that the driver is seeing a key up event and passing it on, and then at
a higher level, the kernel is getting confused because it gets two key
downs followed by two key ups, and proceeds to turn them all into bytes at
the tty level or something similar, instead of ignoring the key up events.

Probably the easiest fix would be to modify the driver to send a key up
event when a second key is pressed, even if the first key hasn't been
pressed, then to ignore the very next key up event for that first key....
Just a thought.  Of course, it's critical that such a change exclude the
modifier keys, so....  Not sure how easy that would end up being.

I'm not sure how to implement that sort of change beyond a conceptual
view, though, as I haven't really looked at Linux's USB drivers much.


Later,
David

---------------------------------------------------------------------
A brief Haiku:

Microsoft is bad.
It seems secure at first glance.
Then you read your mail.


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Re: USB keyboard problems - cdcd

[Hollis Blanchard]

Thomas Graichen wrote:
>
> i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
> standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
> followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
> space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
> - this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
> problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
> wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
> (i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

This is well-known (at least for people with USB keyboards). Interestingly,
it *only* seems to happen with the old Apple USB mini keyboard (the fullsize
is too new; haven't heard anything about it).

The problem only seems to happen when some (not all) groups of three keys
are hit too quickly. It could be because this keyboard physically allows you
to press more keys simultaneously, or it could be driver-related (or both).

The only solution for now seems to be type "cd " one key a time.

-Hollis

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Re: keyboard problems

[Paul Mackerras]

Thomas Graichen writes:
>
> i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
> standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
> followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
> space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
> - this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
> problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
> wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
> (i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

It's simply a bug in the USB keyboard driver.  It just means that the
driver isn't coping with the "overflow" code that the keyboard sends
when it has too many keys depressed at once.

--
Paul Mackerras, Senior Open Source Researcher, Linuxcare, Inc.
+61 2 6262 8990 tel, +61 2 6262 8991 fax
paulus@linuxcare.com.au, http://www.linuxcare.com.au/
Linuxcare.  Support for the revolution.

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Re: keyboard problems

[Thomas Graichen]

Paul Mackerras <paulus@linuxcare.com.au> wrote:

> Thomas Graichen writes:
>>
>> i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
>> standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
>> followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
>> space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
>> - this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
>> problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
>> wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
>> (i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

> It's simply a bug in the USB keyboard driver.  It just means that the
> driver isn't coping with the "overflow" code that the keyboard sends
> when it has too many keys depressed at once.

any chance of this getting fixed in the next time ? - any patch
around to try ? (because it's close to unuseable for me this
way :-)

t

--
thomas.graichen@innominate.de
Technical Director                                       innominate AG
Clustering & Security                                networking people
tel: +49.30.308806-13  fax: -77                   http://innominate.de

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

keyboard problems

[Thomas Graichen]

looks like this one got lost too - so here it is again ...

i have a little keyboard problem on my blueberry imac with the
standard usb keyboard: whenever i type something very quickly
followed by space the typed in will be repeated before the
space (best example: i want to type "cd " and get "cdcd ")
- this gets a bit annoying - does anybody have the same
problem (or even a fix for it) ? - is it more a soft-
wareproblem (i hope :-) or maybe a hardwareproblem ?
(i had it on all kernels from 2.2.x to 2.4.0-testx)

a lot of thanks in advance

t

p.s.: it appears both on the console and under x - so it has
      to - if software - a problem in the kbd driver

--
thomas.graichen@innominate.de
technical director                                       innominate AG
clustering & security                                networking people
tel: +49.30.308806-13 fax: -77 web: http://innominate.de pgp: /pgp/tgr

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

keyboard problems

[Johannes Weißl]

Hello,

I got a Sanyo XT with two 5.25 drives and without any harddisk.
I made a root and a boot floppy on my linux-pc with the command:

fdformat /dev/fd0d360 ; dd if=boot of=/dev/fd0d360 bs=1k count=360
fdformat /dev/fd0d360 ; dd if=root of=/dev/fd0d360 bs=1k count=360

Everything works fine, but when the Login-prompt is shown,
and I try to type "root", only cracy signs appear.

I'm using a German keyboard, because I live in Germany. I tried
several other old keyboards, but none of them worked.
Is there anyone with a non-us keyboard and knows what to do?
Or must I buy an us keyboard ?

-- 
cu,
Johannes Weifll
(sorry for my bad english)

Re: keyboard problems

[Riley Williams]

Hi Johannes.

> I got a Sanyo XT with two 5.25 drives and without any harddisk.
> I made a root and a boot floppy on my linux-pc with the command:

> fdformat /dev/fd0d360 ; dd if=boot of=/dev/fd0d360 bs=1k count=360
> fdformat /dev/fd0d360 ; dd if=root of=/dev/fd0d360 bs=1k count=360

> Everything works fine, but when the Login-prompt is shown, and I try
> to type "root", only cracy signs appear.

> I'm using a German keyboard, because I live in Germany. I tried
> several other old keyboards, but none of them worked. Is there
> anyone with a non-us keyboard and knows what to do? Or must I buy
> an US keyboard ?

It's true that the German keyboard has a different layout to the
standard US one, but the general layout is still the same, and you
should still get the standard ASCII characters when you press the keys
on their own.

However, if you're getting "Crazy signs" rather than normal ASCII
characters, you have other problems than that, and the problem is more
likely to be that you need an XT keyboard, but your keyboards are all AT
ones - IBM in their wisdom changed the keyboard protocol between the XT
and the AT, and you need the right one.

Best wishes from Riley.

Re: keyboard problems

[Albrecht Kleine]

> Hello,

> I'm using a German keyboard, because I live in Germany. I tried
> several other old keyboards, but none of them worked.
> Is there anyone with a non-us keyboard and knows what to do?
> Or must I buy an us keyboard ?

Why not build your own elks kernel?

I am using this in .config:
.....
#
# Select a console driver
#
CONFIG_CONSOLE_DIRECT=y
# CONFIG_CONSOLE_BIOS is not set
# CONFIG_CONSOLE_SERIAL is not set
CONFIG_DCON_VT52=y
CONFIG_DCON_ANSI=y
# CONFIG_DCON_ANSI_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_KEYMAP_US is not set
# CONFIG_KEYMAP_BE is not set
# CONFIG_KEYMAP_UK is not set
CONFIG_KEYMAP_DE=y
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^<-------------------!!!

# CONFIG_KEYMAP_DV is not set
# CONFIG_KEYMAP_ES is not set
# CONFIG_KEYMAP_FR is not set
# CONFIG_KEYMAP_SE is not set
CONFIG_DCON_KRAW=y
.......

Cheers,
Albrecht