LinuxQuestions.org - keyboard capital 'S' stopped working (shift + keycode 39 is stolen)

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- - keyboard capital 'S' stopped working (shift + keycode 39 is stolen) (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/keyboard-capital-s-stopped-working-shift-keycode-39-is-stolen-548520/)

keyboard capital 'S' stopped working (shift + keycode 39 is stolen)

The capital 'S' key on my keyboard does not output an 'S.' In fact, it does not output anything. The cursor flickers and does not move. All of the other keys are intact.

Lowercase 's' is fine, as are all other shifted keys...

Here are some things I tried...

Code:

xmodmap -e 'keycode 39 = s S' # no change

Code:

xmodmap -e 'keycode 39 = a A' # hitting key 39 gives 'a', but shift+39 still does nothing

Here's what xev outputs when I press and hold 'shift' and then keycode 39.

Code:



PropertyNotify event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,

    atom 0xeb (_NET_WM_DESKTOP), time 578176868, state PropertyNewValue



PropertyNotify event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,

    atom 0xf1 (_NET_WM_STATE), time 578176873, state PropertyNewValue



FocusIn event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,

    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor



KeymapNotify event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x0,

    keys:  2  0  0  0  0  0  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  

          0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  



KeyRelease event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x1e00001,

    root 0x1a5, subw 0x0, time 578177637, (308,252), root:(388,412),

    state 0x1, keycode 50 (keysym 0xffe1, Shift_L), same_screen YES,

    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 

    XFilterEvent returns: False

TIA,
desimo

Sounds like a hardware problem to me, and my guess is that it's time for a new keyboard. Do you have a spare you can use? I'm not sure that this condition can be remedied by a command

Really!? That hadn't even occurred to me, but I'll see anything changes when I plugin a different keyboard.

I had assumed it was a software problem because:

1. shift+other keys works fine
2. 's' works
3. 's' works with all other meta keys, such as 'alt'
4. shift_R and shift_L both fail to produce capital 's'
5. CAPS_LOCK still produces correct capital 's'

The thing is, I undid all my mappings and the problem remained. I REDID mappings to "the key", and shift+"the key" still failed to produce anything.

I'll test with a liveCD or a different keyboard and post my results...