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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uuneo.neosoft.com!not-for-mail From: conrads@neosoft.com (Conrad Sabatier) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: kbdio problem (again) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 17:19:22 -0500 Organization: NeoSoft, Inc. Lines: 50 Message-ID: <a952n5.s85.ln@dolphin.neosoft.com> Reply-To: conrads@neosoft.com (Conrad Sabatier) NNTP-Posting-Host: as5200-port-254.no.neosoft.com X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test58 (13 May 97) Originator: conrads@neosoft.com (Conrad Sabatier) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42223 I had posted about this a while back, but I'm still being plagued by this problem. My keyboard keeps generating erroneous control characters every so often. The behavior is so odd, and so erratic, that it's very difficult to pinpoint the cause. I should mention right away that this anomaly occurs in both xterms and syscons, and that it has happened in every version of FreeBSD I've used, starting with 2.1.0 right up to 2.2.1. OK, here's what I'm getting: I'll be typing away merrily in an xterm/syscon, everything working just fine, when suddenly, keypresses will start randomly generating extra characters, bell characters or other odd control/escape sequences. Quite maddening. Sometimes, this behavior will even start while the terminal is sitting idle! I'll be away from the machine, and suddenly hear repetitive beeping and see a string of gibberish on the screen. This usually goes on for a minute or two and then subsides, although sometimes I have to kill the logged in terminal to get it to stop. Even then, other terminals will continue to exhibit the same bizarre behavior. I've been awakened more than once in the middle of the night by this. Sometimes, things return to normal with no intervention on my part. At other times, nothing short of rebooting will cure it. Sometimes it even continues after rebooting, and a total power-down is necessary (try logging in when every other character you type turns into a string of gibberish). Is this a bug, misconfiguration, or do I maybe just have a bad keyboard and/or controller? Has anyone else ever experienced this? I'd *really* like to get rid of this annoyance once and for all. Would using a different keymap help? What about changing the key rate? Is it somehow X-related, perhaps? BIOS? I'm really quite baffled. I'm configured with the basic four virtual terminals, the last off for X, and defaults on keymap and rate. X is configured with the standard 101 keyboard, US. I've never experienced anything similar under MS Windows, by the way. Thanks very much for any suggestions! -- Conrad Sabatier http://www.neosoft.com/~conrads