Comment 4 for bug 345397

Revision history for this message
Jeffrey Knockel (jeff250) wrote : Re: Please include this fix for jaunty

Steps to reproduce:
1. Use evdev for X keyboard input (on Intrepid, Jaunty should be default, i.e. if you have no xorg.conf file)
2. In gnome keyboard preferences, move repeat delay slider all the way to 'Long'
3. Move repeat rate slider all the way to 'Fast'
4. Test repeat rate at bottom of dialog
Expected results: Very fast repeat rate
Actual results: Normal repeat rate

My understanding of the problem:
It appears that the hardware repeat rate is tripping up Xorg's internal software repeat rate. If we set the software delay to be very long, i.e. such that it is longer than the hardware's delay, then the hardware's repeat will be triggered first. Once the hardware begins repeating key events, then the software's delay wait gets perpetually reset, so the software repeat rate will never be triggered.

Some regression discussion:
After patching evdev to ignore hardware repeat events, the hardware rate will be overridden by Xorg's software rate. E.g., before using this patch, you could use kbdrate in an rxvt to set the keyboard rate inside of X. After this patch, doing this has no effect. But I believe that this is OK and expected behavior. Any thoughts other concerns from any X gurus?

Some further justification:
This could close at least the following bugs:
bug 264196
bug 289951
bug 290050
bug 290674