• From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Topic: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

I have been running Statler Alpha 2 on my Asus EeePC 1005HA for several months and would be 100% satisfied with it if not for one glaring peculiarity - there are certain keys that I must hit twice in order for them to echo once - whether in a terminal or a browser.  The keys are apostrophe, double-quote, tilde and back-tic (`).  This happened both before and after running "sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration."

My /etc/default/keyboard file looks like this:

XKBMODEL="asus_laptop"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"

I should mention that I've also played with the XKBMODEL variable set to "pc105" with no change in behavior.  Very strange...

Last edited by extraspecialbitter (2010-11-28 16:26:51)

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  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

I can confirm that this does *not* happen when I boot an Ubuntu 10.04 Live CD, leading me to believe that it isn't the physical keyboard itself, but something to do with my configuration.  hmm

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  • Awebb
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  • Registered: 2009-07-23
  • Posts: 2,470

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

See if there is an eeepc-laptop kernel module.

I'm so meta, even this acronym
  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

Awebb wrote:

See if there is an eeepc-laptop kernel module.

Thanks for the reply.  From what I've been reading, Linux kernels > 2.6.26 should already include eeepc_laptop, but I didn't see it when I ran an "lsmod."  The only module I see with "eeepc" in it is eeepc_wmi.

Coincidentally, I also tried booting an aptosid (formerly Sidux) live CD and didn't see the same behavior.

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  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

I just booted from the Statler Alpha 2 live CD - the same one I used for my hard drive installation - and found that I'm not getting the same behavior (i.e. that the keys behave as expected).  This means that I must have somehow configured it to work the "wrong" way.  Now to figure out how to fix it (hopefully without reinstalling)...

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  • Awebb
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  • Registered: 2009-07-23
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Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

1. it's really eeepc-laptop. The file's called eeepc-laptop.ko, you might find it in the folder /lib/modules/[YOUR KERNEL]/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/eeepc-laptop.ko.

I use this module on Arch Linux. I don't know whether this exists in Debian, but it's not in the 2.6.35 vanilla kernel, so you'll have to load it as a module.

You should also try "acpi_osi=Linux" in your grub line. The combination of the grub line and the module solved almost all problems on my EeePC 1015PEM. Almost... :-D

What seems to be included in the Debian kernel is eeepc-acpi. I don't know if it's the same. Trying it won't hurt.

I'm so meta, even this acronym
  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

The plot thickens.  I noticed that I do have an eeepc-laptop.ko in the proper directory, but it fails to load when I attempt to do it manually via modprobe:

pablo@cruncheee=> sudo modprobe eeepc_laptopFATAL: Error inserting eeepc_laptop (/lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/eeepc-laptop.ko): No such device

An odd error message considering that the module clearly exists:

pablo@cruncheee=> sudo modinfo eeepc_laptop
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/eeepc-laptop.ko
license:        GPL
description:    Eee PC Hotkey Driver
author:         Corentin Chary, Eric Cooper
alias:          acpi*:ASUS010:*
depends:        pci_hotplug,rfkill
vermagic:       2.6.32-5-686 SMP mod_unload modversions 686 
parm:           hotplug_disabled:Disable hotplug for wireless device. If your laptop need that, please report to acpi4asus-user@lists.sourceforge.net. (bool)

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  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

Good news!  Editing my grub.cfg file and adding "acpi_osi=Linux" did the trick after a quick reboot.  Thanks for the help!

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  • Awebb
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Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

Just as I thought. :-D

It's interesting though... could you please try to modprobe eeepc-laptop again, this time with the grub line? I wonder if it's connected.

I'm so meta, even this acronym
  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

Awebb wrote:

Just as I thought. :-D

It's interesting though... could you please try to modprobe eeepc-laptop again, this time with the grub line? I wonder if it's connected.

Yes!  The modprobe command now works just fine, and "lsmod | grep eeepc" confirms this.

Here's the bad news: the behavior where I have to strike the tilde and apostrophe keys twice has mysteriously returned - even after adding "insmod eeepc-laptop" to my grub.cfg file.  I'm bummed, because I thought we had this figured out...

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  • Awebb
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  • Registered: 2009-07-23
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Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

Tilde and apostrophe? You use a "nodeadkeys" keyboard scheme. Use another one :-D

I'm so meta, even this acronym
  • From: Cochituate, MA
  • Registered: 2009-01-21
  • Posts: 258

Re: [SOLVED] some keys on EeePC need to be pressed twice

*blush*

It looks like this topic has been covered before, including this lengthy thread.  Obviously I was telling my keyboard to do exactly what it's been doing by unknowingly selecting "international" options, so this has been an education for me.  In any event, here's the /etc/default/keyboard configuration that ultimately gave me what I wanted:

XKBMODEL="pc104"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"

Thanks again for all your help!

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