X - Annoying keypress repetition bug hunt

rlittle · Apprentice Joined: 17 Dec 2003 Posts: 200

I had a funky terminal problem when I upgraded Gnome a while back. What fixed it was deleting config/profile files in my home dir. (in this case: $HOME/.gconf/gnome-terminal/*)

I was *less* than surgical, I deleted everything in the directory and gnome-terminal recreated everything it really needed. If you've upgraded a bunch of your GUI packages (and you're all Gentoo users...

) your install may not overwrite all your old profile data so that you maintain your old desktops, colours, etc etc. One of these caused my problems, but I have no particular suggestions for KDE users. Hope this helps someone though.

Luck!
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Gaspode · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 36

OK, I started having this problem a couple weeks ago, and I still have not found a solution. I can confirm everything jonaswidarsson has said and summarized so far.

Interestingly enough, it started when I decided to switch to NPTL about a month ago. I changed my USE flags, re-emerged glibc and prelink, and then started to re-emerge world. Around that time I first noticed that keyboard repeat problem. I don't know what else I did; I probably changed some CFLAGs as well. And of course, during the update process, a lot of packages including KDE and Xorg got updated, so it's impossible to tell... but the previously installed X version was already xorg-x11-6.8.0-rx, so this was only a minor upgrade. I am at -r4 now, no change.

After a while, I switched back to linuxthreads instead of NTPL. During the last couple of days, I have recompiled everything without NTPL, no success. I have tried other tricks found in this thread to, including the AccessX things (bouncekeys), no success. I tried different kernels, also deactivating APIC and SMP and preempt, no success. I am desperate right now.

Some interesting phenomena: After logging freshly into X or KDE, I can work without any problems for a while, even under heavy system load everything remains snappy and there is no keyrepeat problem. At some point, something seems to snap internally and everything gets sluggish and the key repeat problems start. I could not find any particular event that could cause this change. It even happens if the machine is completely idle, although I am inclined to believe that compiling stuff triggers the change earlier. By the way, sometimes (yesterday, for instance) I was able to work without problems for several hours, compiling hundreds of packages and really stressing my system. I was already hoping I fixed it. But then suddenly it happened again.
The second thing is that sometimes the problem goes away even without restarting the X server. It just stops, and everything is snappy again. And again, I can't see any special event causing this.

I am inclined to believe that this is an X problem, not a KDE problem. First of all, some people report it with other window managers. Second of all, if I have a lagging system, end the KDE session and relogin, it is still there. If I restart the X server, it is gone. Furthermore, I observe that once the problem starts, X starts using dramatically more resources. It usually is around 1-2% if everything is smooth, and uses more than 10% permanently -- even on a otherwise completely idle system -- when the problem is around. Also, I think that 'top' shows me a lot more system CPU usage (as opposed to user CPU usage). I am not a hundred percent certain though. Resource usage of KDE components remains normal, it's only X that starts eating CPU. Also, KDE versions that used to work don't work anymore.

I think it does not make much sense to keep this in the Gentoo forums, since nobody was able to come up with a real solution so far (I believe that some people had different problems than me and jonaswidardsson, more related to general multitasking or resource problems). I would like to post a bugreport, so that developers actually start caring. I am willing to do whatever it takes to narrow this down. I _need_ a working system, I left Windows years ago and I am not going to go back. Since I recompiled everything multiple times without success, I do not believe that a reinstall would help me.

So the question would be: where to file the bug report? Is this the responsibility of the Gentoo xorg maintainer? Or the X people directly? After all, the Gentoo server is heavily patched. What about the fact that it happens to both XFree and Xorg? Maybe it is something completely different? Maybe the xkb driver is broken? Or something else? But since there are several people here able to confirm the problem, it makes sense to report it somewhere...

Any comments?

By the way, while I am writing this I can feel it starting again, slowly. X CPU usage went up to 10%, typing feels slightly laggy (no repeats so far, but it will only take some more minutes I guess...), by which I mean that the characters appear an instant later on the screen than they normally do. My system is completely idle, no compiling going on. Oh well...

That's it. The lag becomes larger and larger, now everything feels really sluggy again and I got the first repeats. THIS SUCKS.

Gaspode · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 36

Some idea just came to me: Maybe it'd help to check what X is doing while it wastes time. Is there a way to find out which routines use up CPU? Well, I know there is, at least I think that's what profilers are for, but could somebody point me in the right direction on how to use these with X? I tried attaching strace one, but that crashed the system.

jonaswidarsson · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:02 am Post subject:

I guess this behaviour is a jungle of unlucky coincidences, but not necessarily caused by related errors and thus hard to isolate when debugging. In my case the nature of the problem was static. Time didn't affect the feel of using the keyboard at all. The only thing I did to solve it was to emerge xorg instead of xfree86. I had other issues regarding multitasking before, completely related to the sources or the compiler being incompatible with the hardware when using -march=pentium4. I don't dare to do that anymore. At least I won't as long as I am using this computer.

Well, good luck!

TheSoko · n00b Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Illinois

I too have this problem on my Dell Inspiron 700m Laptop. Keys will randomly behave like they're still pressed, including enter, backspace, and shift, which is super annoying, or sometimes they act like they haven't been pressed at all. I don't seem to have this problem in Win XP. I just tried it on a console as well and my keyboard seemed to behave normally. I tried upgrading my kerne from love-sources-2.6.9-rc4-love1 to love-sources-2.6.10-rc3 but to no avail.

It's a Pentium M 1.6GHz, 512MB of RAM. KDE 3.3.1. Not using NPTL. CFLAGS="-Os -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer"
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Gaspode · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 36

Funny thing. I upgraded to the newest gentoo-dev-sources, and the problem seems to be gone. At least it did not happen to me during the past three days or so, although I was constantly recompiling my system (2 packages to go, yay!). I might go back to nitro or vivid just to see if it returns. Maybe it's some problem with the staircase scheduler or something like this, because this is what all the sources I tried before had in common, as far as I can see...

TheSoko · n00b Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Illinois

I tried switching to gentoo-dev-sources also, but I still have the problem. :/

I might try switching to NPTL later this week, if not to solve this issue then for the novelty of it. *shrug*
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vyzivus · Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:35 am Post subject:

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem as many have described here ('stuck' keys repeating endlessly, keyboard ignores keypress etc). I seem to have solved it by stopping gkrellm2 and gnome-battery-applet. I posted this message here aswell:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2136562.html#2136562
I think that this thread and the 'lost ticks' thread are related and both bugs are caused by a faulty ACPI driver/chipset/whatever (at least on my computer).
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vyzivus · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:17 am Post subject:

Ok, stopped gkrellm2 and battery-meter and it didn't help as expected. I went and upgraded to gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.11-r4 - problem persisted. So I got really pissed and removed Power Management Options>ACPI>ACPI support. CPU temperature went 10C above normal, but that damned keyboard finally worked normally! (OK, it messes up sometimes, but really rarely).
So, now I have this configuration:

joebells · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 16

mine happens in the console before I've even installed x. I feel that it might be my wireless keyboard though as it did it under windows too until I installed the intellitype software. It would be nice to get rid of this problem but it doesn't seem to happen very much anymore.

TheSoko · n00b Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Illinois

The problem seems to be degrading for me, and I'm fairly certain now that it's a software issue. Now, whenever I'm scrolling through a large text file in eclipse or emacs, or even just holding down an arrow key in an Eterm, somewhere in the middle of the file, if it's the down key it will act like 2 is sticking, and if it's the up key it will act like 8 is sticking. I do not have this issue in Win XP. I doubt adjusing the repeat rates will fix this issue. The only things that's changed since last night when I did not have this issue would be installing the correct driver for DRI, and updating my toolchain. Perhaps tomorrow I'll try removing the DRI driver from my kernel.

The arrow keys issue seems to trigger these messages in dmesg:

AhronZombi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 105

this may be linked to the problem in the topic xorg lockups
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meltie

Hi,

I'm having the exact same problem:
- key stay pressed in X
- keys act normal in Windows and in console

I didn't try for long in console, but because it happens frequently and didn'd happen there I believe it happens under X only.
Sometimes it doesn't happen for hours and other times I cannot type a sentence without it happening.

I tried the following to solve the problem:
- tried various 2.6 kernels - didn't change anything
- tried various versions of xorg - didn't change anything either
- tried gnome, because I thought it may be kde related - problem happens when using gnome

Right now I try re-emerging glibc, gcc, xorg, kde with ntpl USEFLAG set and will then, if the problem still exists, emerge -e world.

I 100 % believe it's a software problem.

This really sucks, I hope we find a solution soon.

meltie

P.S.: Typed this whole post without problems!

fedekapo · Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 9:49 pm Post subject:

I have the same problem, did anyone find a solution?

XMyth · n00b Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 28

Just to shed some more light on the subject....

I have a microsoft wireless keyboard. 2.6.12-r4 kernel and KDE 3.4.1. I have the problem *rarely* in KDE but frequently when VNC'ing into KDE. I do NOT have the problem when VNC'ing to the box if it's not to my KDE desktop (i.e. if I just ran vncserver to start xfce or something).

fedekapo · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:32 pm Post subject:

This thing is killing me.. I don't know what to do..

I've been using only linux for 2 years, and now I got a laptop and I can't use it because of this..
Laptop: Acer 3002LCI

scylding · n00b Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Wichita, KS

fedekapo · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject:

Final Solution!!!:

This is what I did. I compiled psmouse as module and then I put in /etc/modules.autolado.d/kernel-2.6:

virtual · Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 12:53 am Post subject:

Maybe this will confuse the issue a bit.

I had this problem when I was backing up my partitions, I had booted from the 2005.0 x86 minimal CD.

The only (maybe) "common denominator" I can think of is frame buffers. Anyone who has the problem and not using frame buffers (vesafb, vesafb-tng)???
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TheSoko · n00b Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Illinois

I had this problem long before I got framebuffer working on my laptop.
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joaobertacchi · Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:14 pm Post subject:

I have the same problem discribed here. But I'll tell it to you shortly again:

Problems
- random keyboard repeat rate in X. In console it's ok.
- mouse click problems
*double-click don't works (maybe I need to be very fast to it works)
*right-click don't shows the menu. I need to click and keep pressed

More Info
- I use a serial mouse
- xfce4
- In login manager (gdm) there is no problem!!!!
- In another computer (serial mouse and almost the same hardware) with Ubuntu the problem is there.

The problem started after some package compilation. Stopped and started again always after compile some package...
I have another hd with a working gentoo with kde. In there, no problem. If you want, I can do some tests to help....

I'll try to remove the kernel support to "AC Adapter" and "Battery" in ACPI.

joaobertacchi · Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:38 pm Post subject:

After recompile the kernel without AC Adapter, Battery and not needed device drivers (IDE, audio, video and imput devices that are not present in my computer) every things started to work fine.

smadasam · Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 5:54 pm Post subject: gnome terminal

I was having the same problem. Every thing worked fine in a virtual console, but the keyboard seemed extreemly lagy in gnome. Just as a test, I tried xterm. That seems to work properly. I re-emerged gnome terminal, and that seemed to fix it for me.
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joaobertacchi · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:02 pm Post subject: Solved

The changes that I suggested didn't work.
The defect is totally random. Some times it occurs and other times didn't. But the symptoms only changes when I restart the computer.
I saved a copy of dmesg when the system was bad and another copy when it was OK.
I noticed that when the system isn't ok, the timesource is pmtmr and when it's ok, the timesource is tsc.
Bellow is a part of diff.

coregan · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 4:02 pm Post subject: Re: Solved