fissy Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 I installed Mandrake linux 9.1 a couuple of days ago, annd ever since i've been having this weird problem with my keyboard. If i type faster, the letters often seem tto get pressed twice, which is quite irritating as you can probablly see. This doesn't happen tto me if i boot into xp so i don''t thhink its a problem with my typingg or a fault in the keyboard. People havee told me that i'm holdinng ddoown the keys for too long, i'm fairlyy certain itss not that, it doesn't happen in XP and i've turned off the repeat keys thing in Gnome control panel and it still happens. any help wouldd be reallly appreciated :) fissy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawsonrc Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Hi, fissy...are you on a laptop, perhaps a Toshiba Satellite? This is a "bouncing key" issue that is easy to fix. I will have to come back with the "fix" in a little while, as I just got a phone call and must leave the house at this moment. Please respond with the make and model number of your computer. Regards, Richard L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted April 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Yes! i have a toshiba satellite 1400-553S i tthink. Its a 1.333GHz celeron with, dvd/cdrw, trident graphics, 14.1 inch screen Thanks for your help :) fissy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawsonrc Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 I have the Toshiba Satellite 5005-S507 and the 5205-S703 and this is a common problem with the Linux kernel and the newer Toshiba Satellites; however, I read on a message board that someone just installed the new version of SuSe 8.2 on his/her Toshiba and apparently the bouncing keyboard issue in SuSe 8.2 had been resolved. So it looks like this will be resolved soon for all distros which include the "Toshiba extras" in the kernel for recompiling in the future. Okay...I'll assume that you are comfortable with editing config files in Linux (I, however, am not and have to get help from my local Houston Linux Users Group or from forums like this). Here goes: 1. become root and cd to yhour etc/X11 directory. 2. make a backup of your KF86Config-4 file and call it something like XF86Config-4-OLD. 3. Open an editor such as vi to edit your XF86Configl-4 file. You will now uncomment a line that looks like this -- "XkbDisable" by removing the comment-out # sign from the left of it. [NOTE: In the vi editor, I believe you press the letter i key to insert and edit lines, then when you are finished you type something like :qw for quit and write/save the edit in order to exit out (or qw!), but I may have this a little confused. Another member of this forum can help with vi steps.] 4. Exit out of X if you're inside of it, and then log back in as User. You should now have a functional keyboard. The problem here is with the Toshiba keyboard buffer. When X tries to grab the buffer, it's using software drivers which are reporting incorrect values with quick entry. Uncommenting XkbDisable forces X to pull keyboard entries directly from the hardware. All the above are notes that I saved from another message board, so don't ask me to clarify this any further, as I am not technical. Do you usually type in English? The reason why I am asking this is because doing the above will keep you from using the Alt key with a letter combinations to add accent marks, such as in French, German, Spanish, etc. If you need to use combination keys with the Alt key to add accent marks, then there is a utility you can download and use called, I think AccessX. You can use that program to configure and slow down the keyboard. I'll try to research AccessX later in the next day or two if you need that option instead of the above. Please respond and let us know if this is the right solution for you. Regards, Richard L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted April 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Thank you so much for your help :) fortunately, i'm a native english speaker so i don't need to use accented letters. I'll try the fix later on today, i have to do some revision at the momennt :( Thanks again, fissy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawsonrc Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Fissy, I forgot to mention this to you. There is a "bug" in the new kernel with MDK 9.1 and other distros regarding ACPI, which is the power management for newer laptops for the last year or so. ACPI has repleased APM (Advanced Power Management). When you are on Mandrake 9.1, open up a program called "top". You can do this from the Run command. If you are in KDE, right-click on your desktop and choose "Run Command...". Then type top and press the run button (or press Enter on your keyboard). If you are in Gnome, you can find the Run Command on the Gnome Menu. A program called top should appear on your screen showing run processes. Look for something called KEVENTD. It may be sucking up 99.7% of your CPU usage. There is a fix for this, but it requires recompiling the kernel. For those who know Linux, it is easy to do.) This problem is with the Linux kernel version 2.4.20 or 2.4.21, etc. It is not caused by Mandrake. So it appears that all new distros at the moment will have this problem. If you have this problem, start a new thread in the LAPTOPS section of this forum and title it something like: ACPI and Keventd in MDK 9.1. Regards, Richard L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted April 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Thanks Lawsonrc, The line wasn't in there, so i added it in what seemed to be the most appropriate section, and everythings working fine now :) The keventd program appears in top, but doesn't seem to take up any cpu time :) Thanks for the help, fissy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawsonrc Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Glad I was able to help! :wink: Richard L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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