suddenly keyboard event recognition gets really slow after multiple suspend/resumes

[Georg Sauthoff]

Binary package hint: xorg

If I use Xorg for some time (I mean over suspend & resumes, after several hours), suddenly the keyboard gets unusable.

I.e. I have to press a key for 2 seconds or more to get an keyboard event under Xorg - and then it is duplicated. But if I press it less then 2 seconds, then I don't get any event at all.

The problem shows with Kde unter Xorg with Hardy. Under Gutsy I had the same problem. The problem occurs both with the internal and an external usb keyboard.

As workaround I log out (via mouse which works fine) - and restart the X-Server. The new X-Server works fine then for some time, until the problem occurs again.

I have no problems with keys which are 'stuck' or something like that.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

This sounds like an odd issue. Can you attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file please?

[Georg Sauthoff (g-sauthoff)]

sure, I copied my xorg.0.log today, directly after the bug hit me again.

[Henrik Rydberg (rydberg)]

I am experiencing something similar in Intrepid with kernel 2.6.27-4-generic, on a Macbook Air 1,1.

The problem seems to only occur after resume from suspend to ram. The key strokes are never lost, only strangely delayed into X, or out to the screen. Typing in an xterm for intance, it happens every now and then that nothing is seen, until either return or backspace is pressed (works 50%), or a change to and back from another window is made with Alt-Tab (works 100%). I have not been able to distinguish yet whether the events enter X but are not displayed, or if they get stuck on the way to X. Maybe one hint is that moving over to a text console, some parts of the present page takes a while to update; thus it might be a graphics problem, but I could not tell for sure.

I am attaching the output of dmesg and Xorg after resume. (the stack trace is due to the new wl driver, I doubt that is the problem here)

[Henrik Rydberg (rydberg)]

Maybe this bug is related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/276830

[Henrik Rydberg (rydberg)]

My problem went away with kernel 2.6.27-5 in Intrepid. I wonder if this is still a problem for the original reporter?

[Henrik Rydberg (rydberg)]

It seems some change in the package updates between 06OCT2008 and 07OCT2008 triggered this problem again... it is random, so one cannot be 100% sure it ever went away, but I would say... 90% sure.

[Georg Sauthoff (g-sauthoff)]

To add some info, I am using the kubuntu desktop and experienced the problems under kde.

I think I have found the cause of the reported problem now - at least with my setup.

It is some strange interaction with some kde usability features and some bugs in related systems. There is some usabiltity feature calles 'sticky keys' (IIRC), thus if you press a special key some seconds, this 'feature' get automagically enabled.

But sure enough, even with sticky keys, you should not get key press event duplications. Even worse, at some stage with testing under sticky keys, the X server terminated itself (str+alt+backspace was _not_ accidently pressed).

The kde 3 usability setup dialog is very strange (i.e. has not a high usability (sic!)), thus I thought the usability features were disabled, but they weren't 100%. The consequence was, that sticky keys were enabled, but no optical notification was shown on activation.

I can post some screenshots, that show the configuration dialog in that usability-feature-pseudo-activated-state.

Thus, after making sure, that sticky keys are completely de-activated in this strange configuration dialog the problem was fixed.

[Henrik Rydberg (rydberg)]

... my problem (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/276830) finally went away with the 17OCT2008 updates, so this bug could be closed.

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

I'm seeing a very similar problem. But mine isn't fixed as of Oct 28.

I considered filing a separate bug but this one looks so similar, I decided to add info here.

Keyboard events work in "bursts". Very frequently, the keyboard echo is delayed.

Related: my keyboard repeat is set to be fast (50 per sec) but it pauses every 12 chars for about half a sec.

It looks like xorg is too loaded/busy to handle the character interrupt rate.
If I disable desktop effects, the situation becomes a bit better but keys are much slower than 50 chars/sec as they used to work under hardy and KDE-3.5

Attaching my Xorg.0.log

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Apologies for the double post I should have added more information:

This is the most inconveniencing regression I see since upgrading to Intrepid Ibex.

The problem is the worst in dialog boxes requiring entering a password.

Blind echo (circles/stars instead of the actual password char) is set to echo 3-circles/stars per typed char. This used to be an option in KDE3, now I don't see it anymore in System settings so I'm not sure how to reset it to echo only one circle/star.

Unless I type _very_, _very_ slow (about one char per 2 seconds), my password is being interpreted incorrectly due to missing some input chars. i.e. some chars don't echo if I type faster.

Some more data from my system:

OS: Ubuntu 8.10 (Ibex) RC1 - with KDE 4

Xorg:
$ apt-cache policy xorg
xorg:
  Installed: 1:7.4~5ubuntu3
  Candidate: 1:7.4~5ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 1:7.4~5ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

My keyboard repeat/delay/rate settings look correct in X, but the accepted
rate is nowhere near 50 chars/sec.
In reality, it looks about half that (about 24 chars/sec)

$ xset -q
Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000000
  auto repeat delay: 250 repeat rate: 50
  auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffdfffdfe5ef
                        ffffffffffffffff
                        ffffffffffffffff
  bell percent: 83 bell pitch: 800 bell duration: 500
Pointer Control:
  acceleration: 33/10 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: no
  timeout: 910 cycle: 100
Colors:
  default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
  /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,/home/ariel/.fonts
Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 3605 Suspend: 3705 Off: 3805
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
File paths:
  Config file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  Modules path: /usr/lib/xorg/modules
  Log file: /var/log/Xorg.0.log

I will gladly provide more info to anyone who can ask relevant questions.
Please ask for specifics.

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

I just wanted to update this. Should have done this a month ago. Apologies.

To confirm what rydberg has written.

One of the October-November updates of either the kernel or X.org seems to have _mostly_ solved the problem.

I no longer experience the non-responsive keyboard input echo problem. This looks definitely fixed.

I still see the much less critical problem of the keyboard character repeat rate being slower than the 'xset' setting of 50 cps.
The good news is that the repeat rate is up from about 24 cps to about 35 cps. A great improvement.

All in all a great improvement in keyboard response so I no longer consider this critical.
Would be nice to get my "hardy heron days" 50 cps keyboard repeat rate back.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Great thanks; I suspect the keyboard rate is a kernel issue, refiling.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Triaged a while ago but has not had any updated comments for quite some time. Please let us know if this issue remains in the current Ubuntu release, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . If the issue remains, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Update FWIW: the problem, at least in my env seems to be fixed.

I'm running Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) with regular updates these days.

Kernel is:
     2.6.31-20-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 8 09:02:26 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Xorg is:
    X.Org X Server 1.6.4
    Release Date: 2009-9-27
    X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0

I would like to confirm that keyboard responsiveness is no longer the problem it used to be in intrepid.

Thanks.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

gsauthof,
     Can you confirm Ariel's statement that this has been resolved? I'd like to see if this is still an issue in the Lucid daily if at all possible.

Thanks!

~JFo

[Georg Sauthoff (g-sauthoff)]

JFo, the issue went away for me since I disabled this kde usability feature. Never experienced such issues since then over different Ubuntu versions.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

gsauthof,
      This is an interesting bit of information, I'll mark this bug as Fix Released, but I'd like to make the kde team aware of this. They may want to open a kde task against this bug.

Thanks!

~JFo

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

Hi, I can sadly confirm it does again in ubuntu 10.04 (KDE4.4.3) with kernel 2.6.32.14 and 2.6.34 :o/
xset -q says:
  auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock: off 01: Num Lock: off 02: Scroll Lock: off
    03: Compose: off 04: Kana: off 05: Sleep: off
    06: Suspend: off 07: Mute: off 08: Misc: off
    09: Mail: off 10: Charging: off 11: Shift Lock: off
    12: Group 2: off 13: Mouse Keys: off
  auto repeat delay: 660 repeat rate: 25
  auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffefffedffff
                        9fffffffffffffff
                        fff7ffffffffffff
  bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration: 20/10 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
  timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
  default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
  /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,built-ins,/home/tom/.fonts
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 1200 Suspend: 1800 Off: 0
  DPMS is Disabled

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Tommy,

I'm running a slightly newer (and 64-bit) kernel:

    $ uname -a
    Linux ze 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 28 13:28:05 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

With an older KDE (4.4.2).

And I'm not seeing the problem.

Here's a quick test to verify:

    $ cat - | wc
    [now look at your desktop clock (assuming it has seconds) and press some key for roughly 10 seconds, like so:]
    ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
    [After 10 sec, release the repeated key. Hit ^D to close the input to 'cat' and look at the number of chars printed by 'wc']

    I get over 500 (in this example 513) chars meaning that my repeat rate is roughly 50 cps (there's a 250ms delay at
    the beginning before repeating starts). Just as my X setting is set to.

I'm also running the nvidia module for X (from /var/log/Xorg.0.log).
   xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7 (Bryce Harrington <email address hidden>)
   ...
  (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
  (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so
  (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
        compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
        Module class: X.Org Video Driver
  (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver 195.36.15 Fri Mar 12 00:38:50 PST 2010
  (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
  ...
  (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"

Anyway, this combo with the kernel I use doesn't seem to have the keyboard hiccup problem.
Could you upgrade your kernel to the latest Ibex (10.4) kernel and retry?

YMMV.

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

the 2.6.34 was the latest lucid kernel in the time of writing the comment, but I reinstalled the system, Kubuntu Lucid and it does again. I tried to upgrade xorg.conf because it takes very much of my memory but it didn't helped. I suspect KDE4.5 beta 2 causes the memory leak of xorg.conf and its high CPU usage.

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

Ok, memory leak is no more, few weeks it was ok but the problem with slow typing is AGAIN HERE and I am really mad of it. It chases me from my first steps with ubuntu and I wish it wouldn't press me to ng different than ubuntu. (I wrote "something" but due to this slow keyboard recognition it freezed and typed just "ng") Please can you tell me if it will be ever resolved? If not, the reinstalling OS is no solution for me (because of these reinstallations I ran away from windows 3 years ago).
Thanks

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

Ariel Faigon:

Hi, I tried it as you told, I got this:
tom@tom-laptop:~$ cat - | wc
cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc 0 1 288

Does it mean that I have 288 chars typed? Isn't it too low number? I get lags when typing in konsole, other parts of system looks good by the moment.

It is with kernel 2.6.32-0206321709-generic

I'll try kernel 2.6.32-24 as it is probably latest distributed by updates.

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Hi Tommy

Answering your Qs:

Q) Does it mean that I have 288 chars typed?
A) Yes. 'wc' is word-count, by default it prints 3 numbers:
    number of lines
    number of words
    number of chars
  The last one is 288 - number of chars.

Q) Isn't it too low number?
A) Not if auto-repeat generated 288 chars

The main question is how _long_ it took to print these 288
chars. If you held the 'c' key down for 6 seconds, it means you
have 48-chars per second generated. This is pretty fast and means
you're probably not losing chars. I can get a max of about 50cps
in autorepeat, so this is healthy.

If you get lags, I would try to understand better what's causing
the extra load: start with 'top' (anything highly CPU intensive?
suspicious?) then look at the logs /var/log/* during the exact
time of the lag (every log message has an exact timestamp).
Any errors?

etc.

HTH

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 09:31:36AM -0000, Tommy_CZ wrote:
> Ariel Faigon:
>
> Hi, I tried it as you told, I got this:
> tom@tom-laptop:~$ cat - | wc
> cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc 0 1 288
>
> Does it mean that I have 288 chars typed? Isn't it too low number? I get
> lags when typing in konsole, other parts of system looks good by the
> moment.
>
> It is with kernel 2.6.32-0206321709-generic
>
> I'll try kernel 2.6.32-24 as it is probably latest distributed by
> updates.
>
> --
> suddenly keyboard event recognition gets really slow after multiple suspend/resumes
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227359
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

--
Peace, Ariel

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

nono, it was 10sec as You did... I must say it is now OK, I had to reinstalled Lucid again and after that it is OK.
When upgraded xorg (and drivers NVIDIA 256.44) to latest dev, I had this again, but ppa-purge helped me. New stable NVIDIA drivers (256.44) works OK with stable xorg.

Interesting point was (when I had these "lags with keyboard") that nothing was higher in CPU usage than about 30%.... the whole system usage could be about 50%.

Really strange I think....

Thanks for help ;)

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

Well, now the bug is there again and 10 sec typing letters in cat - | wc shows me 146 chars typed. I am totally mad of it, because it comes to me like waves and I do nottttttttttt know what to do with it. I am sorry for so many "t" but it is the side-effect of problem I have with typing :/ sometimes it hangs and writes it after delay, sometimes it doesn't write whatnd sometimes it doubles, triples letters I typed. CPU consumption about 20% and memory about 1GB of 4total. Xorg takes about 6% and 760MB.

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Tommy,

In comment #18 it says your repeat rate is set to only 25 chars/sec, you also have a
Mine is set to 50 chars/sec so obviously we should be different.

To increase your rate you may use (from a shell):

     $ xset r rate 250 50

Then check with 'xset -q' that your change in in effect.
Finally verify with the 'wc' experiment that you're in the ballpark.

The size of your Xorg is a bit on the high side (I have virtual 411MB) but not outrageously so.

HTH

[Ariel Faigon (ariel.faigon)]

Sorry for the truncated sentence.
I meant to say 'you also have a relatively long delay of 660 ms)

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

Hi, thank you but I already changed it just after comment #22 e time it was OK, but now it is there again. My "xset -q":

tom@tom-laptop:~$ xset -q
Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000002
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock: off 01: Num Lock: on 02: Scroll Lock: off
Colors:
  default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
  /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,built-ins,/home/tom/.fonts
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 1200 Suspend: 1800 Off: 0
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On

[Tommy_CZ (t-kijas)]

I can't even writer here properly because
1) every first and then every 2secs I have lag in writing which makes my system unusable (even mouse cursor cannot move in this time) and
2) the written word in the time of lag is of course "not written". It is very difficult for me to use the OS because it do in all applications and even in wine games (which are also important for me :)
Xorg 450MB and 5%CPU, sometimes it shows me (system monitor) "sleeping disk" on the place of CPU utillisation in xorg column, may be importaot know.

I cannot try again "cat - | wc" because the konsole is mostly lagged and I cannot even type here, pushing "Enter" is the best way to lag the OS for about 6seconds. (the longest lags are in konsole)

Please if you can, advice me something I'cause I am really desperate of it. :o/

Sorry for missing letters in the words

Thank you

[ubuser (maxim4d)]

Registered to confirm the problem persists.
And it seems to not have any relation to CPU load (it's very low).

$cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS \n \l

$uname -r
3.2.0-29-generic

The problem happens when playing a game in wine (which always run without problems). Suddenly the keyboard response becomes slow. After exiting wine, the response in any other program is still slow. Mouse response is fast, as well as any operations (switching windown with mouse, etc). But the keyboard takes about 1 second to get the key.
Also, typing key combinations becomes tricky.
If i press Ctrl, press and keep "d" and then release Ctrl, no Ctrl-D will be sent, instead only "d" itself will be went.
I have to press Ctrl, keep it for about a second, then press "d", wait for another second, and ony then the Ctrl-D sequence gets sent.

If i end my session, the input speed is immediately restored (in login screen it's fast). Seems like a xorg issue?

Looks like this problem persists at least from 2004 (according to Google search).

Hope this helps with investigation.
Does anyone know a reason behind this problem?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

gsauthof, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/227359/comments/16 regarding this being resolved with a configuration change. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.

[Jeremy A (jtheoof)]

Recently, I've been having exactly the same issue with my keyboard. I do not know if it's after a recent kernel update.

# uname -a
Linux basaidai 3.5.0-28-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 23 23:03:38 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Anyone else having the issue recently?

I am not using KDE or anything, just a clean 12.04 Ubuntu with Compiz.

Keyboard seems very sluggish after resume. I need to press hard on keys and type very slow in order for keys to come in to the OS.
This looks like a Kernel bug.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Jeremy Attali, if you have a bug in Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Kernel team, Ubuntu Bug Control team, and Ubuntu Bug Squad would like you to please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please see the Ubuntu Kernel team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports

the Ubuntu Bug Control team and Ubuntu Bug Squad team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue

and Ubuntu Community article:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report would delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Jeremy A (jtheoof)]

Done. Bug: #1180087

[Alvin P. Schmitt (schmitt-alvin)]

I am a semi-newbie. I get the problem of keys being echoed to the screen many seconds after I type them. I am running on a 32 bit machine at 2.6 GHz processor and 4 GB ram. This is with Ubuntu 16.04 and with all the updates as of 3/30/2017. This is a real problem and is not related to any of the so called solutions I see posted. I set swappiness = 10 . Has anyone found a real solution to this problem?