I installed Slackware 10.2 on an AMD Athlon system and I installed SLAMD64 on a AMD64 system.

Both have the same problem.

Sometimes (but more often on the 64bit system) the console behaves weird.

Sometimes, when I'm using the console, both as root and as user, I have to press the keys twice for each character to get it to display.

Everything works fine in X.
I've tried several different Window Managers, and no problem with any of them.
All terminal emulators, such as Konsole, etc, work fine in X.

When I ctrl-alt-F2 (F3, F4, etc...) back to a console, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. On the 64bit machine, it happens every few minutes. VERY aggravating!

If I use "mc" or "elinks" or any other program in the console, they all work fine. Anything that I type in there is no problem.

It's only when I type commands directly on the console that I have the problems.

Both computers use different keyboards.

The command "loadkeys -d" doesn't change anything.

I've been using Slackware for about 8 years now. It's my only OS (with the exception of SLAMD64).

I installed dropline-gnome on both machines. That was a big mistake. I will have to do a fresh install on the 64bit machine as a result. It really messed things up. But that's another thread.......

The problem existed even before I installed dropline.

This is one of the few times where I cannot figure out the problem on my own.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

George

what connection type? (ps2/usb)
what make/model?
what is the output of `echo $TERM`?
does `showkey` catch the input?

[kinda reminds me of the old days with
the duplex mode set incorrectly]

echo $TERM gives me LINUX on both machines
connections on both are PS/2
showkey on both is "kb mode was XLATE"
and the "keycode 28 release"
"keycode 28 press" etc.....
even when the console is acting weird.

No make and model. Both were built.
The Slackware 10.2 machine has an ATI card and 2 ide drives.
The Slamd64 10.2b machine has an Nvidia card and 2 SATA drives.

Both machines have two ext3 formatted drives in them.
First time using ext3. Before I used ext2 and reiserfs.

Duplex mode?

i was asking the make/model of the keyboards...

..but i just saw that this problem could be caused
by another process conflicting with the port.
try killing gpm or others to see if that corrects it.

We've also attempted to investigate this and try to figure out what the cause is. Best I can figure is that it's related to the kernel. I've had two stock Slackware 10.2 systems (no additional software installed) with sata.i and the stock 2.4.x kernel, and both experienced these same problems; e.g. missing characters, high latency button response, etc. This is even a problem when logged in via SSH or simply using a terminal without an X11 session. The problem appears to go away when I've updated to my own custom 2.6.x kernels. I've also heard from other users that have noticed this as well.

Some folks indicate that this could be related to the kernel USB drivers (even if you aren't using a USB keyboard - Mine is PS2, even though I have a USB mouse). Others have also indicated that disabling legacy USB support in their BIOS seems to help correct things.

I never considered the mouse/keyboard connection in this problem... it was never a problem before, when I was running Slackware 9.1 and earlier releases.

But, on my AMD64 machine, I just switched to a USB mouse that I had, and all is working fine. I was using it for several hours yesterday, and I didn't have a single problem.

On my 32bit machine that's running Slackware 10.2, the problem is not as bad, but I guess that I'll just get a USB mouse for that as well.

Thanks *ALOT* for all of your help!

Glad that you worked it out. By the way... What kernels are you using?

On my new 64bit machine, I'm using 2.6.16.20 SMP enabled,
and on my older 32bit system, I'm using 2.4.31.

Something is obviously different in Slackware 10.2, because this was never an issue before.

This EXACT same problem used to happen to me. I was using Slack 10.2 on a 64-bit Athlon machine with the sata.i kernel.

A temporary fix would be to run the 'reset' command. After I upgraded kernels, the problem also stopped.

cheers

For me, "reset" command was a VERY temporary fix.

Just wondering, what kernel did you upgrade to?

I've come across a few issues with AMD64.