sticky Ctrl and Alt keys

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) qdn.public.qnxrtp.photon
#1

Hello.

Has anyone else noticed that the Ctrl and Alt keys occasionally get
stuck when running Photon?

We have seen it happen (repeatedly) in two situations:

  1. on our embedded target (Cyrix Geode) when switching consoles using
    (ctrl-alt-number)
    the cpu usage goes to 100% for a moment (due to the redrawing of the
    screen I think)
    and either the input device driver or the PS2 hardware gets confused and
    ctrl or alt
    are then stuck down.

  2. using Photon running on a pentium server over phindows to a windows
    machine.
    Sometimes ctrl gets stuck. I try to type ‘cd’ in a terminal window and
    oops a
    ctrl-c is sent.

Is this a known problem?

Best Regards,

Michel

#2

Michel Benoit <michel.benoit@saabcom.se> wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the Ctrl and Alt keys occasionally get
stuck when running Photon?

We have seen it happen (repeatedly) in two situations:

  1. on our embedded target (Cyrix Geode) when switching consoles using
    (ctrl-alt-number)
    the cpu usage goes to 100% for a moment (due to the redrawing of the
    screen I think)
    and either the input device driver or the PS2 hardware gets confused and
    ctrl or alt
    are then stuck down.

  2. using Photon running on a pentium server over phindows to a windows
    machine.
    Sometimes ctrl gets stuck. I try to type ‘cd’ in a terminal window and
    oops a
    ctrl-c is sent.

Is this a known problem?

I don’t know, but there’s another situation where something similar can
happen; even though it surprises most people, it’s not considered a
problem – it’s a feature:

  1. If you hit Ctrl while holding down CapsLock, the keyboard goes
    into the “Ctrl lock” mode that looks, basically, as if Ctrl was
    stuck. You can turn it off by pressing Ctrl again (this time
    without the CapsLock). The same method of locking works with Alt
    and Shift.

–
Wojtek Lerch (wojtek@qnx.com) QNX Software Systems Ltd.

#3

So, is this a feature of the hardware? Should I send a “Thank you” note to
IBM? :slight_smile:

Wojtek Lerch wrote:

Michel Benoit <> michel.benoit@saabcom.se> > wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the Ctrl and Alt keys occasionally get
stuck when running Photon?

We have seen it happen (repeatedly) in two situations:

  1. on our embedded target (Cyrix Geode) when switching consoles using
    (ctrl-alt-number)
    the cpu usage goes to 100% for a moment (due to the redrawing of the
    screen I think)
    and either the input device driver or the PS2 hardware gets confused and
    ctrl or alt
    are then stuck down.

  2. using Photon running on a pentium server over phindows to a windows
    machine.
    Sometimes ctrl gets stuck. I try to type ‘cd’ in a terminal window and
    oops a
    ctrl-c is sent.

Is this a known problem?

I don’t know, but there’s another situation where something similar can
happen; even though it surprises most people, it’s not considered a
problem – it’s a feature:

  1. If you hit Ctrl while holding down CapsLock, the keyboard goes
    into the “Ctrl lock” mode that looks, basically, as if Ctrl was
    stuck. You can turn it off by pressing Ctrl again (this time
    without the CapsLock). The same method of locking works with Alt
    and Shift.

–
Wojtek Lerch (> wojtek@qnx.com> ) QNX Software Systems Ltd.

#4

Dean Douthat <ddouthat@faac.com> wrote:

So, is this a feature of the hardware? Should I send a “Thank you” note to
IBM? > :slight_smile:

No, it’s a feature of the keyboard mappings that we ship with Photon.
You’re free to build your own mappings that don’t have it…

Wojtek Lerch wrote:
…
3. If you hit Ctrl while holding down CapsLock, the keyboard goes
into the “Ctrl lock” mode that looks, basically, as if Ctrl was
stuck. You can turn it off by pressing Ctrl again (this time
without the CapsLock). The same method of locking works with Alt
and Shift.

Wojtek Lerch (wojtek@qnx.com) QNX Software Systems Ltd.

#5

Michel Benoit wrote:

Hello.

Has anyone else noticed that the Ctrl and Alt keys occasionally get
stuck when running Photon?

We have seen it happen (repeatedly) in two situations:

  1. on our embedded target (Cyrix Geode) when switching consoles using
    (ctrl-alt-number)
    the cpu usage goes to 100% for a moment (due to the redrawing of the
    screen I think)
    and either the input device driver or the PS2 hardware gets confused and
    ctrl or alt
    are then stuck down.

  2. using Photon running on a pentium server over phindows to a windows
    machine.
    Sometimes ctrl gets stuck. I try to type ‘cd’ in a terminal window and
    oops a
    ctrl-c is sent.

I experience #2 regularly e.g. If you alt-tab to phindows from some
other program (e.g. editor), it will regularly “stick” the alt button.
You have to press it again to unstick it.
If you use the mouse to switch to Phindows, this never happens.

#6

And it is especially annoying when doing PhAB work.
With that ctrl/alt key stuck, I found that widgets get
duplicated without my noticing. Annoying-hope it gets
fixed sometime. People who use the keyboard a lot
are very vulnerable to this little bug.

Alex wrote:

Michel Benoit wrote:

Hello.

Has anyone else noticed that the Ctrl and Alt keys occasionally get
stuck when running Photon?

We have seen it happen (repeatedly) in two situations:

  1. on our embedded target (Cyrix Geode) when switching consoles using
    (ctrl-alt-number)
    the cpu usage goes to 100% for a moment (due to the redrawing of the
    screen I think)
    and either the input device driver or the PS2 hardware gets confused and
    ctrl or alt
    are then stuck down.

  2. using Photon running on a pentium server over phindows to a windows
    machine.
    Sometimes ctrl gets stuck. I try to type ‘cd’ in a terminal window and
    oops a
    ctrl-c is sent.

I experience #2 regularly e.g. If you alt-tab to phindows from some
other program (e.g. editor), it will regularly “stick” the alt button.
You have to press it again to unstick it.
If you use the mouse to switch to Phindows, this never happens.

#7

Hi.

Can you point me to any info that explains how /dev/Photon
builds the PhKeyEventt events from the input it receives
from devi-hirun?

I am also looking for info on the keyboard mappings
(usr/photon/keyboard/).
Specifically, ow to modify them or write my own.

We have a strange situation here with sticky ctrl and alt keys.
Our RTP target uses a PS2 interface to an input board that we have
built.
I suspect that our input board is sending something up to the
photon input device that confuses it.

I would greatly appreciate any hints as to where I can
find more information about the RTP keyboard input chain:

keyboard - ps2 decoder/hw - devi-hirun - /dev/Photon - PhKeyEvent

Thanks and best regards,

Michel Benoit
Saab Communication
Stockholm Sweden