#5658 NORM 8.2.0 (: Sticky Alt or Control Key

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#5658: Sticky Alt or Control Key
-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------
   Reporter:  davidpfarrell  |       Owner:  wad                 
       Type:  defect         |      Status:  new                 
   Priority:  normal         |   Milestone:  8.2.0 (was Update.2)
  Component:  hardware       |     Version:  Build 653           
 Resolution:                 |    Keywords:                      
Next_action:  never set      |    Verified:  0                   
  Blockedby:                 |    Blocking:                      
-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------

Comment(by AlbertCahalan):

 Replying to [comment:105 chm]:
 > I have several observations on the Sticky Alt or Control Key problem:
 >
 > (1) It may be more of a problem than realized.  When my XO started
 >     sticking, it looked like one more hiccup in the OS, Sugar, or
 >     Activities.  If I had not been a Terminal user, I might never
 >     have figured out what was wrong.
 >
 > (2) Since the Alt and Ctrl keys are used for shortcuts in Sugar and
 >     Activities, the sticking problem can cause what appears to be
 >     a completely broken application with no symptom except that
 >     things don't work.

 I've reported activity bugs that turned out to be stuck keys. :-(

 > (5) It would be very useful to have an activity that could
 >     be installed to work-around the problem.  For example,
 >     even though I know how to remap with xmodmap, with a stuck
 >     keyboard, I was not able to create the file, test it, or
 >     install.  I finally got a USB keyboard and plan to implement
 >     the work around mapping but this is way too hard to do.  I
 >     work with unix all the time and this is still a huge pain.
 >
 > (6) Would it make sense to have the ability to disable meta-keys
 >     in sugar and other activities?  If the activity is python
 >     based, would it be possible to add a checker in the stream
 >     at the level of the script dealing with keyboard IO.  That
 >     would allow things to function: like typing in text to a
 >     URL in the Browse activity, in spite of the sticking...

 Xmodmap is too high-level, and python is way to high. This is a
 problem that occurs below X. It affects the Linux console, and
 it may affect OpenFirmware. It should be fixed as close to the
 source as possible.

 The closest place that still runs on the Geode is the kernel.
 (and OpenFirmware)

 Other places are much harder to deal with. (EC firmware, any
 firmware that may be in the keyboard itself, keyboard plastic)

 Possible hack: a key that remains down for 1 minute (probably
 long enough to not interfere with a game) becomes ignored
 until it no longer appears to be stuck.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5658#comment:108>
One Laptop Per Child <http://laptop.org/>
OLPC bug tracking system