Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit on Dell XPS 8000

This one is really busting my balloons. I have been running my new machine for a couple of weeks now. I have either beaten most issues into submission or come up with work arounds or just learned to live with them. Except for this one...

About once a day, I cannot duplicate the circumstances, my Alt key ceases to function in Ubuntu. My left hand has over the years evolved into a specialized tool which presses Alt-Tab and Alt-F4 instinctively. When these do not work it is driving me nuts.

I have determined that this is not a hardware issue. I generally have a VMWare virtual machine running and Alt-Tab and other Alt key combinations work in the VM at the same time as they are not working on the host.

I must at a minimum logout and back in get the Alt key to be recognized again in the host.

Any ideas/suggestions? Is there a tool which I can run to examine the key strokes as they are typed? something like the keyboard tester which runs during installation?

TIA,

Ken

You could test if ALT key is recognized by using xev utility

Thanks dracuss! That is just what I am looking for. Armed with this tool the problem will never again occur so I can test it And when it does I will check with xev and see what happens when the Alt key is pressed.

Now I have to go remove the heater box from my 1980 MGB so that I can replace a leaking heater core. Considering that some of the maintainers of the Ubuntu distro are probably descendants of the people who made MG automobiles - not surprising that the Alt key disappears on occasion. It was probably created by Lucas Electric.

Cheers,

Ken

Now that I am armed with the xev utility the problem has not occurred in the past week or so. That said, it will probably occur as soon as I post this reply