#5658 NORM Never A: Sticky Alt Key

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#5658: Sticky Alt Key
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 Reporter:  davidpfarrell  |       Owner:  jg            
     Type:  defect         |      Status:  new           
 Priority:  normal         |   Milestone:  Never Assigned
Component:  distro         |     Version:                
 Keywords:                 |    Verified:  0             
 Blocking:                 |   Blockedby:                
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 This is day 4 of my new OLPC and today I am experiencing some weird Alt
 key behavior.

 After power on finished, I went straight to the console (Ctl+Alt+Group)

 I was not able to log in as every character I typed had a little symbol
 preceding, as if it were a control character - I Believe the character was
 '^' but am not absolutely positive.

 I tried pressing ctl, alt, shift, fn and many other keys for a minute or
 two to see if the problem would go away.  It didn't.

 I managed to get back to the home screen, so I 'restarted'

 After restart, I switched into the Write activity to try out the keys.

 The keys appeared to type as normal, so I again tried to get into the
 console.

 The console didn't up after pressing the keys.

 After that, I could not type normally on the keyboard:

 * Typing "R" would rotate the screen
 * Typing "F" would toggle the frame
 * Typing "N" would switch to the next program
 * Typing "P" would switch to the previous program

 I could tell that one of the control keys was stuck, but I didn't know
 which one.  I eventually discovered that those are Alt key combos.

 I tried tapping, rubbing, and flicking the ALT key, but nothing changed.

 I left it alone for a few minutes and, when I came back, the keys appeared
 to be working again.

 I tapped the alt key and, grrr, it was stuck again.

 I have not found a way to consistently un-stick the alt key when this
 happens, BUT

 If I press the alt key very slightly, it will allow me to type normally,
 until I relesae the key.

 By The Way: I could not repeat the case where that weird character
 preceded the letters while typing on the console.  Holding down Ctl, Alt,
 Fn or any combo of them did not seem to reproduce the character.

 So to summarize:

 The left alt key is getting stuck "on" and I can temporarily turn it off
 by slightly pressing the key.  But as soon as I let go of the key, it is
 stuck "on" again.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5658>
One Laptop Per Child <http://dev.laptop.org>
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