Paul L. Snyder on 10 Nov 2005 19:42:56 -0000


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [PLUG] Keyboard Strangeness


On Thu, 10 Nov 2005, Michael C. Toren wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 10, 2005 at 12:41:28AM -0500, Doug Crompton wrote:
> > My server has been up for over a year without a reboot. 99.9% of the
> > time I log in via SSH on my local network. Just recently when I
> > attempted to login on the 'real - plugged into the PS2 connector'
> > keyboard I get strange characters like ^g when I hit g and it is
> > basically unusable. I cannot login. I tried killing the term but it
> > stays the same. It also seems the other virtual sessions are hosed
> > (F2,F3, etc.) if it even switches to them.
>
> I assume you've confirmed that the control key wasn't suck in a depressed
> position?  You may also want to try "loadkeys us" or "loadkeys emacs2" to
> reset the keyboard map.

Even if the key is not actually stuck down, sometimes the system will
miss the PS/2 key-up event on one of the modifier keys.  Try pressing all
the control, shift and alt keys a few times.  It's not elegant, but
sometimes pounding on the keyboard will actually fix the problem.

A reboot will sort out many woes.  Personally, I've never really
understood uptime fixations...I'd rather have a fully patched system.
If you *really* don't want to reboot your system, there are plenty of
other things you can do:

  - Remove the monitor and mouse, and pretend you wanted a headless
    server to begin with.  

  - Buy a USB keyboard and start using that, instead.

  - If all else fails, take a look at the kernel code to figure out
    where /proc/uptime gets its data from, and how to spoof it.  C'mon!
    It's no worse than using cheat codes to make it past a tricky
    bit in Doom 3.

pls
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug