Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

wysen · 2016-10-03 13:04:46

Hello,
excuse my bad english but I hope you can understand my posting...
After Years with XFCE I have now a strange behavior after a completly new install.
Every ~20seconds (not exactly counted) the keyboard acts autonomously. I can observe this behavior when I start a terminal (xfce4-terminal, terminology, xterm etc) and make a long listing (or dmesg, etc).
If I then press Page+UP & Shift - to scroll up - it jumps after ~20s down. Like I have pressed a key. But I didn't touch anything.
The same behavior I could realize with a mediaplayer. (it displays every 20s the OSD)
Also when I pressing the cursor-left / right key to navigate in mousepad it unexpectedly stops moving.

If I not using X and scroll up in the console (Page-UP & Shift) it didnt jumps down, also cursor navigation ( as described above) didn't stops unexpectedly.
With another DesktopManager - like Gnome - I also not have this behavior.

I hope you can help me.
Thnaks in advance

Wysen

ToZ · 2016-10-03 18:54:56

Welcome to the forum.

That is definitely a strange problem. Can you confirm which version of Xfce and xfce4-terminal you are using? Also, which media player and which version?

Try this test. Run "xev" in a terminal window. A separate X window will pop-up that will wait for some sort of input (keyboard, mouse) and will wait for input. Don't touch anything or press anything. Does something display in the terminal window indicating activity? If so, can you copy and paste that content back here?

wysen · 2016-10-03 21:19:00

Thx for your fast answer.

the versions, of course:

- xfce4: 4.12
- xfce4-terminal: 0.6.3
- terminology: 0.7.0
- gnome-mplayer 1.0.9
- firefox-esr: 45.4.0
- chromium: 53.0.2785.143

But the complete new install isn't very fresh, I installed this Computer about 2-3 month ago.

I am also using terminology (in xfce) as terminal, but with the same behavior. And when I select some text in the web-browser (firefox, chromium, midori) I sometimes lost the selection-start (i think this has the same problem source, because when i'm would pressing a key it also would stop selecting)

The Hardware:
Dell E6430 (with backlit-Keyboard)
It only affect the active window.

xev says:

xev wrote:

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 33130790, (170,-13), root:(577,332),
state 0x0, keycode 40 (keysym 0x64, d), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (64) "d"
XFilterEvent returns: False
MappingNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
request MappingKeyboard, first_keycode 8, count 248
KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 33135363, (170,-13), root:(577,332),
state 0x0, keycode 255 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 33135364, (170,-13), root:(577,332),
state 0x0, keycode 255 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
ClientMessage event, serial 41, synthetic YES, window 0x4c00001,
message_type 0x150 (WM_PROTOCOLS), format 32, message 0x14e (WM_DELETE_WINDOW)

my last real keypress was "d" and after the "autonomously event" I closed the xev-window.

ToZ · 2016-10-03 21:49:59

KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 33135363, (170,-13), root:(577,332),
state 0x0, keycode 255 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 33135364, (170,-13), root:(577,332),
state 0x0, keycode 255 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

Something is generating "keycode 255" on your system. Here is a thread over on stackoverflow with a very similar problem to yours. Outlined is a method of determining what device is causing the errant keypress and disabling it.

wysen · 2016-10-03 22:49:17

Thanx
it works.
I also have the " Virtual core XTEST keyboard " with id=5

the solution is to start X with the parameter "-tst" (for me in /etc/slim.conf @ xserver_arguments)
that was funny easy - but perhaps someone has an explanation?
iam very glad, now my terminal working fine.

big thanks to ToZ. when you are in austria here is a free beer waiting for you!
figlet THANK YOU!

ToZ · 2016-10-04 01:07:40

wysen wrote:

big thanks to ToZ. when you are in austria here is a free beer waiting for you!
figlet THANK YOU!

*scans flight info for flights to Austria...

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#1 2016-10-03 13:04:46

Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

#2 2016-10-03 18:54:56

Re: Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

#3 2016-10-03 21:19:00

Re: Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

#4 2016-10-03 21:49:59

Re: Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

#5 2016-10-03 22:49:17

Re: Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

#6 2016-10-04 01:07:40

Re: Keyboard operate autonomously(?)

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