Right alt works sporadically

adanedhel728 · 07-02-2009, 08:23 PM

I've had this problem for the last several versions of Ubuntu, but I'm now finally sick and tired of it enough to try to fix it. My right alt key works sometimes, but not always. If it doesn't work, only a restart and fix it. I would like to just stop this problem from happening altogether, and I've found a few solutions on Google, but they're only for older versions and refer to options that don't exist in Jaunty. Is there any way to get the right alt to always work?

stress_junkie · 07-02-2009, 08:35 PM

It could be a dirty or rusted contact. Try opening it up and cleaning the contact. If you have more than one keyboard handy try swapping to see if the problem disappears when using the other keyboard.

adanedhel728 · 07-02-2009, 08:42 PM

No, it's not a hardware problem. It works fine in Windows and a reboot fixes it. And I've found this problem on two different computers (with different keyboards). And I know that it's not an uncommon Ubuntu problem. The ultimate problem is that all fixes that I've found on Google don't apply to Jaunty. :/

Thane · 07-06-2009, 07:42 AM

Not sure if this is the case. But as a starting point I seem to recall from a problem I had a couple of years ago, that the left and right alt keys were often mapped to do different things by default in Ubuntu. Cannot remember if this was strictly as a result of Ubuntu or was as a result of individual keyboard key mappings in Ubuntu though. Possibly someone with more experience might be able to comment on this.