# Keyboard stops working in X while compiling packages...

## MasquedAvenger

Hey everyone.  I have a rather odd problem.  After some updates to X.org about a month ago, without fail, after compiling packages for ~10-15 minutes, the keyboard stops working under X.org.  Or, rather, whatever was the last key I hit when the keyboard stopped working is the key that will continue to be held down in software, and I won't be able to hit any other keys.  I thought at first that this could be chalked up to flaky hardware (it's a laptop, and heat can do bad things to laptops), but as soon as I log out of X.org, the keyboard works fine on the console, and if I startx again, it's working once more under X.org as well.

This only happens when I'm updating packages (I'm assuming it's related to keeping the CPU very busy while running X.org, but I could be wrong.)  If I'm not, the keyboard continues to work fine.  I checked the X.org log, and dmesg, but nothing seems to even hint at the fact that something might have gone wrong.

Has anyone else had this problem?  I run Fluxbox, with gnome-settings-daemon sitting on top (it makes sure fonts in apps like Firefox are rendered properly.)

Thanks!

James

----------

## Ijon Tichy

 *MasquedAvenger wrote:*   

> Hey everyone.  I have a rather odd problem.  After some updates to X.org about a month ago, without fail, after compiling packages for ~10-15 minutes, the keyboard stops working under X.org.  Or, rather, whatever was the last key I hit when the keyboard stopped working is the key that will continue to be held down in software, and I won't be able to hit any other keys.  I thought at first that this could be chalked up to flaky hardware (it's a laptop, and heat can do bad things to laptops), but as soon as I log out of X.org, the keyboard works fine on the console, and if I startx again, it's working once more under X.org as well.
> 
> This only happens when I'm updating packages (I'm assuming it's related to keeping the CPU very busy while running X.org, but I could be wrong.)  If I'm not, the keyboard continues to work fine.  I checked the X.org log, and dmesg, but nothing seems to even hint at the fact that something might have gone wrong.
> 
> Has anyone else had this problem?  I run Fluxbox, with gnome-settings-daemon sitting on top (it makes sure fonts in apps like Firefox are rendered properly.)
> ...

 

Heh. And here I thought I was the only one. 

Mine doesn't sound as severe as yours -- I've never had to log out of X -- but when compiling packages my keys will occasionally get a bit "sticky". I've also had that situation happen where a key press gets stuck and repeats for a bit. I just chalked it up to a loaded CPU. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a fix for it as it hasn't really stopped me from doing anything. I just deal with it while things are compiling. I thought I'd let you know you weren't alone, at least.    :Smile: 

----------

## Ijon Tichy

 *MasquedAvenger wrote:*   

> Hey everyone.  I have a rather odd problem.  After some updates to X.org about a month ago, without fail, after compiling packages for ~10-15 minutes, the keyboard stops working under X.org.  Or, rather, whatever was the last key I hit when the keyboard stopped working is the key that will continue to be held down in software, and I won't be able to hit any other keys. 

 

I did a bit of poking around out of curiosity and this (long) series of comments seems to be from folks having a very similar problem:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/xorg-server/+bug/124406?comments=all

Which, eventually, leads to this kernel bug (having something to do with ACPI):

http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9147

Not sure how much that helps, but maybe it'll give you a place to start.

----------

## MasquedAvenger

 *Ijon Tichy wrote:*   

> I thought I'd let you know you weren't alone, at least.   

 

It's good to know I'm not alone, even if you don't have a solution to share  :Smile:   It's worse when you have weird issues like that with no logs to back it up and nobody else has had that experience in common.

James

----------

## MasquedAvenger

 *Ijon Tichy wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I did a bit of poking around out of curiosity and this (long) series of comments seems to be from folks having a very similar problem:
> 
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/xorg-server/+bug/124406?comments=all
> ...

 

I'll check it out.  Thanks for the links.

James

----------

## MasquedAvenger

After reading about that kernel bug, I REALLY hope it's not that.  This is a laptop; I need the ACPI modules  :Sad:   Thanks again for the info.  Hopefully I'll figure this out.  I suppose for now, I'll just have to compile updates when I'm not using X.

James

----------

## mirv

Bit of an older thread I know, but was there ever a proper solution to this problem?

----------

## MasquedAvenger

Unfortunately, no.  I've since just had to resign myself to compiling updates when I'm not using the system.

James

----------

## mirv

I do find that "xset r off" whilst compiling seems to preserve some sanity of my keyboard at the cost of no key repeats. I just re-enable it after compiling - it's still quite annoying though.

----------

## MasquedAvenger

hmm... I'll have to try that.  Thanks!

James

----------

## mirv

Just wanted to post a followup (even if it's a few months later). 

I switched from using the kbd driver (specified in xorg.conf) to using evdev instead and it all seems to be working ok now. Of course it's only been a day, but I've managed to compile chromium and wine without the bug occurring, so I'm hopeful it's fixed.

----------

