single tap causes many letters sometimes

[Kyle Nitzsche]

Sometimes, a single key press in OSK causes multiple keys to appear.

It is hard to reproduce, but here is what I just did that caused it:

* I installed with --wipe brand new rtm krillin image 133.

* In Welcome Wizard, I selected English as my language and completed to normal shell.

* in System Settings > Languages, I selected Spanish as display language, which caused a reboot

* On reboot, I entered the scopes "dashboard" (not the "dashboard" scope, but the place where you see Favorites v All and a search field)

* I tapped the search field, which display the OSK. (Note, the keyboard layout is still English.)

* In OSK, I tapped the globe key to switch layouts and chose Spanish

Now, I got weird double keys on single presses. Bad enough to be unusable.

However, after switch OSK back to English and back to spanish I don't get them, so I wonder whether it has to do with switching the system's runtime locale.

[Kyle Nitzsche (knitzsche)]

Just noting that this could be a mir bug or the touch driver being too sensitive sometimes. I have seen these symptoms and more without changing any settings.

[Kyle Nitzsche (knitzsche)]

This is happening again.

$ system-image-cli -i
current build number: 157
device name: krillin
channel: ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09-proposed
last update: 2014-11-12 14:22:12
version version: 157
version ubuntu: 20141112
version device: 20141106-572f18d
version custom: 20141111-424-19

[Kyle Nitzsche (knitzsche)]

and this time I did not change any languages after a --wipe and install.

[John McAleely (john.mcaleely)]

just to note that KyleN is using a retail handset.

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey)]

I have found this happens more often than not when the screen has finger print smudges on. It triggers multiple erroneous presses simultaneously. Wipe the phone with a cloth and the problem immediately goes away.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Pat McGowan (pat-mcgowan)]

In case its relevant there was a similar symptom discussed on the mailing list
https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-phone/msg19236.html
"When the phone is being charged, the screen touch becomes super sensitive, a touch that would ordinarily type one character, may type a few to several characters, windows, tabs etc do not respond correctly.."

This was attributed to faulty ground in a charger or bad USB cable. So if this was seen while plugged into something it could be related. "We are in knowledge of this HW issue that affected some chargers that had a bad behaviour with the screen tactility when is plugged"

[Michi Henning (michihenning)]

I have just seen this issue again on the first boot after reflashing with --bootstrap. The first time this becomes noticeable is when entering the network password during the setup wizard.

I got the multiple character problem while the phone was plugged into my Mac laptop. The laptop is plugged into the power point using the two-prong adapter attached to the charging brick, not the three-prong cable, meaning that the laptop isn't grounded. There are dozens and dozens of reports of people getting mild tickling from their laptop case when plugged in without a grounded cable. Here is one example: http://superuser.com/questions/461898/earthing-is-it-important-for-laptops

Apparently, it is normal for up to half the mains voltage to be on the case.(I can feel this when I'm using my laptop with bare feet and touch the edge of my case with my forearms while typing. There is a mild tingling sensation.)

Anyway, the instant I unplugged the phone from the laptop, the multiple character problem went away. I'll try to reproduce once more, but this time unplugging the laptop from the power supply, instead of pulling the USB cable. With both laptop and phone floating, I'd expect the issue to go away. If so, I think we can confidently say that this is a hardware problem.

[Michi Henning (michihenning)]

I've tried hard to reproduce the problem, but no luck :-( If I see this again, I'll report back.

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

On my phone under Yahoo Mail app i get a similar problem: The last word i wrote in my message is sometimes doubled when clicking a send button.