One User lost keyboard in X11 on Open SuSE 11.1

am.lm.hans · 07-02-2009, 01:14 AM

The Problem...
When starting KDE, just before the bouncing gear comes on, all keyboards go dead, but just for one user.

The History...
I have been using Open SuSE 11.1 since last Xmass. Last Friday it worked fine. Monday, no keyboard!?

The Experiments...
Used mouse to reboot--No good.
Plug in 2nd keyboard to USB--No good.
Boot to SuSE 10.3--OK.
Boot to SuSE 11.1 run level 3--OK
Start kde as root--OK
Create new user "test" and log in to kde--OK
Start kde as me while pressing Caps Lock furiously--Caps Lock light on and off furiously on both keyboards till the bouncing gear comes on, then nothing, what so ever. Like they are not plugged in.
hmm...bad user config? why!? Where?!!
Exit via mouse.
In tty, do "ls -lR | grep '2009-06-26' > last_changed_files.txt". Not quite 900 lines. Umph

The Question...
How do I find what is wrong and make it right?

contusion · 07-03-2009, 02:28 AM

Your keyb board may be dead. Try reinserting the keyboard in the PS/2 port.
Or put another good keyboard on the PS/2 port.

am.lm.hans · 07-05-2009, 04:30 PM

All keyboards work in all operating systems for all users in all run levels except for the specific case of run level 5, user me, SuSE 11.1.

I don't think it is a bad keyboard. :-)

am.lm.hans · 07-23-2009, 03:54 AM

I have solved my own problem. I turns out KDE has a "slow key" mode that is activated when the shift key is held down for more than 10 seconds. Holding the shift key down another 10 seconds reactivate the keyboard.
This appears to be some kind of "feature" that has been tripping people up for some years.

Reference http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=36625