Pressing Function key in conjunction with others crashes X

[Brian Yurko]

This issue happens nearly every time I press the Function key in conjunction with the left or right arrows. I often intend to press Ctrl + Arrows to move the cursor, but the Function key is adjacent to Ctrl.

What happens, the following symptoms are observed. The desktop is preserved as it was at the time of the crash. The system time never advances nor does any other visual indicator update (such as network disconnect, media insert, etc). I can move the mouse about the screen, but the pointer does not change based upon the context and no clicks are registered. No keystrokes are registered. I cannot press Special (Window) + F2 or Special + Escape to bring up any system menus.

I have needed to restart the computer to correct this. (I can test again with less drastic steps if anyone wishes to make recommendations.)

(I believe the issue is with xorg-server, not various gnome processes.)

I am using an Acer Aspire Timeline 5810T, a laptop.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.10.1-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun May 15 21:09:31 2011
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/Xorg
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Beta i386 (20110413)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
SourcePackage: xorg-server
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Brian Yurko (byurko)]

Here is a very interesting series of steps that will reproduce this issue every time.

Boot the computer.
At the GDM login screen, prior to logging in...
Press Function + Left Arrow and Function + Right Arrow a couple of times.
Notice that there is a screen overlay that shows the brightness level in the upper right corner (LCD brightness is mapped to my FN + Arrows)
At this point I can still use the mouse and keystrokes are still being registered.
Log into the system by selecting a user account and entering a password.
You will begin to see the desktop load, accompanied by a login sound.
The cursor changes to a waiting icon.
At this point, the system ceases to be responsive any further, according to the description provided above.
The mouse will still move the wait cursor around the screen. Keystrokes other than Ctrl + Alt + F# are not recognized.

Based upon this series of events, it is possible the bug truly lies in another part of the system. I can't select anything more appropriate on my own, so help me out here.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey byurko,

You filed this bug report against natty, but I see it's still open and
doesn't appear to have much activity recently. So, now that oneiric
is released and stable, this may be a good point for you to upgrade
and re-test if this issue is still present there.

If it's solved in the new release and you think it's worth backporting
the fix, please indicate that. Or if having the fix in the new release
is good enough, feel free to close out the bug (or let us know and we'll
close it.)

If it's not solved, leave the bug report open. I can't promise we'll
get to it (we get way more bugs filed than we can usually get to), but
your testing and feedback can help out if and when we do.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.