sticky keys disarms after idle period

[Coljep]

If you select Sticky keys from keyboard accessibility preferences, each time you reboot you will be asked after about 2 min of inactivity that as you have just hit two keys together or pressed shift 5 times (?) do yo want to turn off sticky keys. If you reply no you will not get the message until the next reboot.

If in addition you select toggle keys to give an audio reminder of Caps lock, Num lock or Scroll lock two things happen. First the audio signal is not as described (one beep - on two beeps - off) but just a single beep. Furthermore ALL selected accessibility features will need to be reselected at the next reboot as they will all be turned off. This one is a real pain.

Happens in Gnome and K desktop from at least 5.10 to 7.04, probably 7.10 as well

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

I use sticky keys and do not recall seeing this, though I normally tell it to ignore having two keys pressed together. That might be a workaround for Coljep.

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

Originally from https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/13742

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

Yes, I have faced this problem too. 'Disable Sticky Keys if two keys are pressed together' is disabled on my Ubuntu 7.10 system running GNOME; yet if after starting up for the first time I leave the system alone, and don't touch any keys for about two minutes, a pop up comes up and asks me whether I want to deactivate sticky keys.

This ONLY occurs after rebooting - and not if you leave the system idle any point in time after that. It can be very irritating indeed. I may leave my system to startup, and when I come back after some time there's this popup.

[Andreas Moog (ampelbein)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Coljep (coljep)]

Andreas Moog wrote:
> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been
> any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue
> for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: None => gnome-applets
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Andreas Moog (andreas-moog)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>
Hello Andreas,

Yes this bug is still here in Ubuntu 8.04. In fact to my mind it has
gone backwards because I now sometimes get the standard "You have just
pressed two keys together or--- etc." well after the first time after
not having done the accused deed. This action seemed to be cured
previously but has now come back.

I do not know if you are aware that sticky keys does not work at all
under WINE and the original bug is. I think, is also seen under all KDE
distros that I have tried.

Do not hesitate to contact me if I can help further.

Colin Jepson

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

I would like to add to what Colin has said - the problem still remains in Ubuntu 8.04, and has in fact got worse in it. Sticky Keys keeps getting deactivated EVEN IF two keys aren't pressed together. And even if the box next to 'disable sticky keys if two keys are pressed together' is UNCHECKED in the config dialog, it still keeps on deactivating Sticky Keys anyway. The worst bit is that the prompt which comes up ("You have just pressed two keys together..." with the activate / deactivate buttons) isn't able to grab focus from any currently opened applications. I need to minimise all windows, and only then that dialog box shows up. Even if I click the button to keep Sticky Keys activated, it deactivates it anyway. The only way to get around this (as far as I know) is to go to the accessibility options, and then deactivate and activate Sticky Keys.

I have not encountered a similar problem in KDE distros. This problem also exists in Xubuntu, and the symptoms are pretty much the same, except that Xubuntu doesn't give a prompt before deactivating sticky keys.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

I just tried out Ubuntu 8.04.1 (I'd removed Ubuntu and shifted to openSuse 11.0 for a while), and I wanted to add here that the bug exists in 8.04.1 too. Just thought I should add this here. However, there IS a bit of a difference. I'd written earlier (my comment above) that the "You've pressed two keys..." dialog box comes up and is unable to grab focus, and deactivates the feature anyway. That was in 8.04. In 8.04.1, no dialog box comes up - instead, it just silently turns it off. If I go back to the keyboard accessibility configuration tool, the checkbox for Sticky Keys (which was checked earlier) is shown as unchecked. Checking it again does enable Sticky Keys temporarily; however, within a few minutes it gets deactivated again without giving any dialog prompts.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could somebody having the issue describe how to trigger it and maybe open the on bugzilla.gnome.org too?

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

"could somebody having the issue describe how to trigger it and maybe open the on bugzilla.gnome.org too?"

As I mentioned earlier, there is no particular action as such which needs to be taken to trigger it. Simply activate the turn on accessibility features from the Accessibility configuration dialog box, then activate Sticky Keys. The feature will remain active for some time, and then get deactivated on its own. Open the configuration box again to activate it, it will again work for some time before getting deactivated.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

how is what you describe a gnome-applets bug? and since you have the issue could you send it to bugzilla.gnome.org?

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

"how is what you describe a gnome-applets bug?"

I didn't say that. When I came across this bug report on Launchpad, it had already been assigned as a bug in gnome-applets; must have been done by the first person who reported this. And it isn't really his mistake I guess, because end users may not know which particular part of the software is causing the issue (I'll file this as a suggestion for improving Launchpad).

"and since you have the issue could you send it to bugzilla.gnome.org?"

I haven't done that because I've seen it myself only in Ubuntu and its derivatives like Linux Mint. I'm more partial towards KDE and distros apart from Ubuntu which I've used are all KDE-based. I'm sure the bug is probably in Gnome's accessibility software itself, but I think it might be more prudent if someone over here who's used Gnome on a non-Ubuntu based distro can confirm it exists in others.

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

I don't think this is a gnome-applets bug. At least it occurs regardless of whether there is an accessibility applet present or not. If anything I would say it belongs against at-spi. But I believe there are several interacting accessibility-related packages, and it is hard to work out which of them is at fault.

A variant of this is reproducible in Intrepid.

Instructions:

Choose Preferences|Assistive technologies
"Enable assistive technologies" is checked (default)
Choose "Keyboard Accessibility"
Check "Simulate simultaneous keypresses", and "Disable sticky keys ..." is unchecked (default)
Click in the test box, press Shift A B and observe "Ab" as expected
Press Shift+A B and observe "Ab" and also that sticky keys has now been turned off

In other words "disable if two keys are pressed together" is always active even if it's not selected.

[Coljep (coljep)]

This longstanding bug seems to have been cured in Ubuntu 8.10
I have not had much trime with 8.10 but so far there have been no problems

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

"This longstanding bug seems to have been cured in Ubuntu 8.10. I have not had much trime with 8.10 but so far there have been no problems" - Coljep

I *have* been using Ubuntu 8.10, and I can confirm that the bug is *still* there.

[Coljep (coljep)]

Are you talking about both parts of this bug?
In 8.10 I do not get the message 2 min. after boot and no activity. I have never seen the message at any time after this as yet but I have not used 8.10 to any great extent.
I do not have the "disable if two keys pressed together" checkbox selected.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

I do not have the 'Disable if two keys pressed together' checked either. True, the dialog box doesn't pop-up, but Sticky Keys *does* get deactivated. After it gets deactivated if you go and see the Keyboard Accessibility options you'll find that Sticky Keys has been unchecked automatically.

[Coljep (coljep)]

Very strange, I've just checked my system and Sticky Keys does not get deactivated after a reboot and period of inactivity. It was still working after 45 min.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

That's weird. I'll check it up again at my end and post steps here to recreate the bug.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

I can confirm that the bug still exists. Sticky Keys does get deactivated; same procedure to recreate the bug as earlier - except that it no longer gives the popup window offering to deactivate Sticky Keys.

[Coljep (coljep)]

This is still very strange. I have now installed Ubuntu 8.10 on two very different machines and neither shows any problems.
8.04 on my main machine still has the initial problem but I have not seen it re show up at random times later in the day recently.
In Kubuntu 8,10 Sticky Keys seems fine.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

OK, here's what I do:

1. System > Assistive Technologies
2. Check 'Enable assistive technologies'
3. Under Preferences, click on Keyboard Accessibility button
4. Check the box next to 'Simulate simultaneous keypresses', but _not_ the one below it on 'Disable...'
5. Click 'Close' on both dialog boxes.

Sticky Keys gets activated for some time, and then gets deactivated without any notification. On repeating the above steps, I find that the checkbox next to assistive technologies is still checked, but on going to keyboard accessibility, the one next to Sticky Keys is unchecked.

[Coljep (coljep)]

The only difference is that I do not check "Enable Assistive Technologies".
I go straight to Keyboard Accessibility and enable Sticky Keys (just the top box)
Maybe that was selected by default before as soon as sticky keys was chosen?
Try it.

[Coljep (coljep)]

Things have changed again in 8.04 for me anyway. Now Sticky keys turns itself off between reboots and has to be re activated each time I boot the computer.
In 8.10 everything seems to be working fine which is the main thing. I expect that I shall be abandoning 8.04 soon anyway but it should work correctly as it is an LTS version.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

At my end though, Sticky Keys keeps getting deactivated in 8.10. I tried your method too Coljep, of not enabling from Assistive Technologies first. I just enabled it from Keyboard preferences, and yet I still have the same problem.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

I figured out a workaround for this, but I don't know what the problem with the underlying code is. These are the steps I followed and now Sticky Keys is working. I was just going through gconf-editor options when I came across this thing.

1. Start gconf-editor (Configuration Editor).
2. Go to /desktop/gnome/accessibility
3. I had enabled Sticky Keys from Keyboard preferences before starting gconf-editor. I found that stickykeys_enable was checked. stickykeys_modifier_beep was checked. stickykeys_two_key_off was also checked. This is important, because I had specifically not enabled this option from Keyboard preferences. Nevertheless, it was checked. I unchecked this, and set value for timeout to an extremely large value (24000).

Since then, Sticky Keys has been working fine. So I guess it's some issue with 'Disable sticky keys if two keys are pressed together' being active when it shouldn't be, right?

Another thing. Set timeout to a value other than 120, and then check / uncheck any other Sticky Keys related gconf option. The timeout will get reset to 120. Is this expected behavior or a bug? (If it's the latter, should I file a new bug for this?)

[Coljep (coljep)]

Ankur, Your method certainly works for 8.04 on my machine. Now I do not have to reset Sticky Keys after a reboot.

I have found that you can only change the Timeout value if you activate Timeout, the option below. It is not required for Sticky Keys to work and would probably be counter productive.

In 8.10 I still do not have a problem and in gconf-editor all three stickykeys options were selected. Most confusing but at least it works now in both versions of Ubuntu.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Could someone experiencing this issue please take a look at bug 209532 and see if this is a duplicate of that one? I have looked, and to me, it appears to be.

[Ankur Banerjee (ankurb)]

@Charlie: Going by the description of bug 209532, this bug report and the other one are indeed referring to the same problem; this one had been filed before the other one.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 209532, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Coljep (coljep)]

Hi,

As far as I know this bug has been cured. I have not had the problem for at
least 18 months. It disappeared during a regular Ubuntu upgrade. It was
replaced by lack of system sound when you used a modifier key. I have also
asked the Gnome developers, and others, for a small applet in the taskbar to
show the state of the keys.

Colin Jepson

On 12 April 2010 18:45, Charlie Kravetz <email address hidden> wrote:

> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 209532 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/209532
>
> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a
> duplicate of bug 209532, so it is being marked as such. Please look at
> the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you
> can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug.
> Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in
> the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may
> find.
>
> ** Package changed: at-spi (Ubuntu) => gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 209532
> Accessibility keyboard settings get lost
>
> --
> sticky keys disarms after idle period
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/153518
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>