#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 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.

 (3) The XO that has the sticky keys had the problem symptoms
     stop completely during one of the os updates I've installed
     over time (seems like it was in the 700s).  I upgraded and
     ever since the problem is back.  Note: I am unable to revert
     and verify this since I only connected the two as possibly
     linked a month or so after the period of keyboard perfection)

 (4) I've had the keyboard boot test show no keys sticking but
     constant Alt and Ctrl sticking while running.

 (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...

 --Chris

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5658#comment:105>
One Laptop Per Child <http://laptop.org/>
OLPC bug tracking system