Key repeat not working inside Adobe Reader

[Ricardo Pérez López]

Binary package hint: acroread

When I press and hold any key inside Adobe Reader, the key repetition don't work. This is especially disturbing when I try to navigate through the PDF document with the up/down arrow keys or the PgUp/PgDown keys, because I need to press the key many times to simulate the behavior of keeping a key pressed, like a woodpecker ;).

All the other applications works perfectly and the key repetition works fine across the whole desktop.

This issue can be reproduced on Jaunty using Adobe Reader 8 or 9 with the packages from the Canonical's partner repository as well as the official .deb packages from the Adobe's website. However, I can't reproduce this issue on Ubuntu Hardy.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

An easy way to reproduce this bug:

1. Start a Live session on Ubuntu Jaunty Desktop CD.
2. Open any web page inside Firefox browser and get sure the up/down arrow keys repetition works OK.
3. Install Adobe Reader 9 from the Canonical partner repository or simply downloading the .deb package from:
   http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.1/enu/AdbeRdr9.1.0-1_i386linux_enu.deb
4. Open Desktop -> Examples -> Ubuntu_adoption_case_studies -> Howard_County_Library.pdf using Adobe Reader.
5. Try to navigate across the document using the keyboard: press and hold the up/down arrow keys.

Result: Key repetition doesn't work, so you need to press and hold the arrow keys several times repeatedly.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

Seems to be confirmed by an Adobe developer:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1976032

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

@neecie, could you please tell us why the fix is commited? Thanks.

[Brian Thomason (brian-thomason)]

Is this behavior still present in 9.3.3?

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

To me, this issue was fixed in Lucid, and it's still fixed now in Maverick.

Thanks!

2010/9/13 Brian Thomason <email address hidden>:
> Is this behavior still present in 9.3.3?
>
> ** Changed in: acroread (Ubuntu)
>       Status: Fix Committed => Incomplete
>
> --
> Key repeat not working inside Adobe Reader
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/378399
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Hiep Luong Nguyen (hiepln)]

I am using karmic ubuntu. I have just reinstalled acroread to version 9.4 but the problem is still there. Don't we have any solution invented so far?