Keyboard acts like "Fn" key always pressed

[Kevin]

Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager

Ubuntu release 10.04 Beta. Keyboard keys affected by the "Fn" key act as if the "Fn" key is always enabled. The only way to get the appropriate key function is to hold "Fn" key while pressing the affected key.

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

I have the same problem but with the "Alt"-key on my acer extensa 5620 laptop with the Ubuntu relase 10.04 Beta.
The problem started yesterday, probably after an update with 'apt-get upgrade'.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Not sure why you think this is a gnome-power-manager bug

[Stef (alibaba-2)]

I have the same problem but with ubuntu 9.10.
It started after i connected a wireless keyboard to my notebook.
I tried to reconfigure the keymap with the commands
dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
and
dpkg-reconfigure console-setup
but it still does not work.....
Any suggestion?

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

The problem goes away when I change the setting under Appearance -> Visual Effects to None.

[Stef (alibaba-2)]

....not for me unfortunately....But under KDE the problem vanish...It's a gnome related bug...

[Stef (alibaba-2)]

I fixed the problem by deleting the content of the directory

/home/User/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard

that is automatically recreated at the start up, if does not exists, with the default configuration.

Let me know if it works for you too.

[Giorgio Cardarelli (giorgio-cardarelli)]

Yes, problem fixed deleting /home/User/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard dir.

The problem started after I've installed unrar (using aptitude from console): it removed 2.6.32-21 kernel headers but, since I'm using 2.6.32-22, I thought that was not a problem.

BTW, keyboard wasn't working in console too.

Giorgio

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

Still isn't working after deleting the content in

/home/User/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard

the folder stays empty even after reboot.

[Felipe Ortiz (fortizma)]

Thank you Stef, I also I fixed the problem by keeping empty the directory /home/User/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard

After that, when I booting the keyword worked well.

Thanks.

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

Since my "home/User/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard" keyboard folder stays empty after I have deleted the files, is there possibly some alternative folder that is used on my computer for the keyboard which I could try to remove ?

It is a really annoying bug >.<

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello
Is this problem present with the latest updated Lucid's or Maverick's packages?
Thanks in advance
Fabio

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

Yes . The problem persists even with the latest packages in Maverick.

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

I have found another way to remove the unpleasant effect of this bug. I changed in Settings -> Windows the checkbox for what button to use to move windows from Alt to Super and then I changed it back and now it is working with both Normal and None Visual Effects!

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello
Can you run in a terminal
apport-collect -p xserver-xorg-input-keyboard 566161
Thanks
Fabio

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

what does it do?

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Just collect hardware's, kernel's, xorg's, alsa's ecc. information to analize.
Fabio

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Obviously no personal data will be collected

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 260.19.06 Mon Sep 13 06:35:06 PDT 2010
 GCC version: gcc version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5)
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
MachineType: Acer Extensa 5620
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: xserver-xorg-input-keyboard (not installed)
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=3fe90d8d-c6c2-4b64-95d0-9187f4b765f4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=sv_SE.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.35-generic 2.6.35.4
Tags: maverick maverick
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 02/01/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: V1.32
dmi.board.name: Columbia
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Rev
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: None
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrV1.32:bd02/01/2008:svnAcer:pnExtensa5620:pvr0100:rvnAcer:rnColumbia:rvrRev:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Extensa 5620
dmi.product.version: 0100
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.35-22-generic

[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

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[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

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[Melpomene (christopher-kack)]

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[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

hello
Requested infos added
Fabio

[Phil Hannent (phil-hannent-deactivatedaccount)]

I thought my problem was related to this bug, however deleting files did not fix the Function keys working as if the Fn key was pressed.

I booted into Windows for the first time in a year and it exhibited the same problem. I concluded that there must be a problem in the BIOS.

I just checked and my Dell Studio 1749 actually has an option to toggle the default behavior of the F keys. For some reason (I can only guess a BIOS update) it had switched from the traditional key use to the Fn key use.

[Razvan Gavril (rgavril)]

Press 'Num Lock' and see if that fixes the problem, it worked for me. A long time I thought it's a ubuntu bug but is not ... :)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

This was filed against the wrong driver package. -keyboard is no longer maintained; keyboards are managed via the -evdev driver now. However from the comments it seems that this has something to do with gnome gconf settings (so perhaps this belongs to gnome-settings-daemon?)

Also sounds like there is a BIOS settings aspect to this, or perhaps completely different bugs are exhibiting the same symptoms. Not sure there's much we can do about BIOS settings causing trouble, but maybe file a new bug against the kernel to have that looked into.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

is that still an issue?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-desktop (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]