10-21-2020, 02:32 PM
This thread continues the thread I posted some time ago. Forgive me if that's not good protocol. That thread received no replies and since then I've done a lot of my own trial and error research making the content of this post quite different. Also, being a little more familiar with this forum I thought it might fit better in this category.
My basic problem is that the computer keyboard switches from upper to lower case on its own while I'm trying to type, making it pretty useless, especially for any work that is case sensitive, like terminal commands.
I just want to share my progress:
First, I tried various installs like Fedora and Debian from microSD card and found the same faulty behavior. I tried installing Arch but of course that was impossible due to all the CLI input needed. Tried different DEs, KDE, Cinnamon, Lumina, LXQt and Xfce with no luck. For now I am using Fedora with Openbox. That the problem still persists with an external USB keyboard tells me maybe it's not a keyboard hardware problem. But what sort of problem is it then?
After much trial and error I noticed:
1. " sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change "
would temporarily stop the problem. But the problem could revert in a matter of seconds.
2. " xev -event keyboard "
from terminal indicated a shift key problem. This seemed logical as the problem mainly involves constant back and forth switching between upper and lower case.
3. Installing and running onboard gave me a clear visual image of this shift key problem. Onboard showed me that the computer was by itself constantly typing the shift key, often many times a minute. I am unsure of the cause, but I pinpointed the problem to the right shift key.
4. Disabling the right shift key with " xmodmap -e 'keycode 62=' " alleviated the problem. Placing this code in autostart files for the user and desktop environments helped make the keyboard somewhat usable as can be seen by the fact I am using the PBP to type this.
However, besides not being able to use the right shift key, I am also not able to type uppercase V, B, or M keys. I am able to type them using Caps Lock.
Of course, the original problem persists before login when typing password, which can be tricky. I haven't been able to figure out how to make these changes during boot, before the login window appears.
Perhaps with this information you can help me in getting to the root cause of the problem. I think it would be in the interest of making a better Pinebook.
At the moment I have a rather crippled computer.
All help, hints, info much appreciated.
Kendew
My basic problem is that the computer keyboard switches from upper to lower case on its own while I'm trying to type, making it pretty useless, especially for any work that is case sensitive, like terminal commands.
I just want to share my progress:
First, I tried various installs like Fedora and Debian from microSD card and found the same faulty behavior. I tried installing Arch but of course that was impossible due to all the CLI input needed. Tried different DEs, KDE, Cinnamon, Lumina, LXQt and Xfce with no luck. For now I am using Fedora with Openbox. That the problem still persists with an external USB keyboard tells me maybe it's not a keyboard hardware problem. But what sort of problem is it then?
After much trial and error I noticed:
1. " sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change "
would temporarily stop the problem. But the problem could revert in a matter of seconds.
2. " xev -event keyboard "
from terminal indicated a shift key problem. This seemed logical as the problem mainly involves constant back and forth switching between upper and lower case.
3. Installing and running onboard gave me a clear visual image of this shift key problem. Onboard showed me that the computer was by itself constantly typing the shift key, often many times a minute. I am unsure of the cause, but I pinpointed the problem to the right shift key.
4. Disabling the right shift key with " xmodmap -e 'keycode 62=' " alleviated the problem. Placing this code in autostart files for the user and desktop environments helped make the keyboard somewhat usable as can be seen by the fact I am using the PBP to type this.
However, besides not being able to use the right shift key, I am also not able to type uppercase V, B, or M keys. I am able to type them using Caps Lock.
Of course, the original problem persists before login when typing password, which can be tricky. I haven't been able to figure out how to make these changes during boot, before the login window appears.
Perhaps with this information you can help me in getting to the root cause of the problem. I think it would be in the interest of making a better Pinebook.
At the moment I have a rather crippled computer.
All help, hints, info much appreciated.
Kendew
