Arch Linux

Filed a bug report to upstream, too.
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18622

Please attach your xorg.conf and some logfiles.

Here are some logfiles.

The error messages at the end of Xorg.0.log only appear after the login into an X session.
When only the graphical login manager, in my case slim, is loaded, these error messages are not there.

These error messages appear only since the last xorg update. With previous versions I didn't have these error messages.
They also seem to be Archlinux specific, because I don't have these error messages on Gentoo. On Gentoo I have some different error messages regarding hal and the keyboard. But on both distributions I've got the same keyboard problem, described in my original bugreport.

I already searched the forums for the error messages, and tried everything what I could found, but nothing helped. The keyboard problem still exists.

I've also attached my Xorg.0.log from Gentoo, just in case. Maybe it helps.

I'm using the same xorg.conf on both distributions and on both distributions I have installed hal and xf86-input-evdev.
On Gentoo I've also tried to uninstall xf86-input-evdev, because I don't need it, but this didn't change anything.

I wonder what Xorg update you're referring to, as the Xorg.0.log is from 1.4.2. I would have expected that the input device handling change since 1.5.3 would have made the difference.

Well, I've checked it again, and have to admit, that xorg-server wasn't indeed updated on Archlinux. This was updated only on Gentoo.

Unfortunately I can't remember which packages have been updated during the last week on Archlinux as well as on Gentoo. But something must have changed on both distributions, because the same problem appeared at the same time on both distributions.

Or can this be a hardware issue? But I can't imagine, which part could be defect, because in X, and without X or only with slim running on the console the keyboard is working as usual. And the error messages in Xorg.0.log only appeared, when the keyboard problem appeared last week.

I'm thinking of doing a complete reinstallation of Archlinux in the hope that this will fix the problem by itself.

Now I tried some other things. I booted the latest Knoppix DVD, which wasn't updated since several months. On Knoppix 5.3.1 I don't have this problem. So I guess, that this can't be a hardware issue.

And on Gentoo I just downgraded udev from 130 to 125. The problem didn't disappear completely, but my first impression is, that it's a bit better now. The keyboard seems to respond a bit faster. But on Gentoo I have xorg-server 1.5.2 installed. I'll try to downgrade xorg-server to 1.4.2 on Gentoo. Maybe the problem was a combination of udev and xorg issues.

Is it somehow possible to downgrade udev from 130 to 125 on Archlinux? I unfortunately don't have the udev-125 package in /var/cache/pacman/pkg anymore.

On Archlinux udev was updated in October, but I load slim at boottime only since I found an updated and patched slim package in AUR last week, so I haven't used X and the text console at the same time on Archlinux. On Gentoo I've updated udev last week. So this can be the reason, why the keyboard problem occurred also on Archlinux last week.

I found out something very interesting.

I just thought about my last comment. Because due to a bug - can't handle long passwords - I can't use slim 1.3.0 from extra. So I always logged into the text console (vt/1) and started X by running startx. If I needed the text console during the X session, I needed to switch to vt/2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2). The keyboard worked perfectly as usual.

Now that I found the updated slim-pam package in AUR and updated to slim-pam-1.3.1, I start slim at boottime with the inittab method. When I now need the text console during an X session I switch to vt/1 (Ctrl-Alt-F1). And since then I have these problems.

Now I've tried not to load X at boottime on Gentoo, logged into the text terminal (tty1), started X by running startx (I've hardly ever done this on Gentoo before) and switched to tty2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2). Lo and behold! The keyboard works perfectly again.

Then I've started X on Gentoo at boottime again, logged into an X session, switched to tty2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2) and the keyboard works again. Then I've switched to tty1 (Alt-F1) and the keyboard problem appeared again, but only on tty1 not on tty2.

So on both Archlinux and Gentoo this problem occurs only on the first text console (vt/1 on Archlinux and tty1 on Gentoo).

The keyboard problem on the first text console only appears, when an X session (KDE or Xfce) is running.
When only slim is running or X is not running, the keyboard reacts perfectly also on the first console.

Forgot to say that I also filed a bug report to Gentoo and freedesktop.org, because I think but I'm not sure, that/if it's an upstream issue. And I'm not sure, if it's a pure xorg issue or if it's an issue with some other packages which conflict with xorg.

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18622
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=247543

I'm guessing its a problem with the xf86-input-keyboard package. Using "evdev" for the driver, got my keyboard running again.

I'm not quite sure, because I tried it with xf86-input-keyboard as well as xf86-input-evdev and the problem is still there.

Or can you, please, tell me how you have configured your xf86-input-evdev and xorg.conf? Maybe I made a mistake there, even if I configured it as described in the documentation.

Here's the Keyboard section in my xorg.conf:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "evdev"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event1"
EndSection

Is this fixed with xorg-server and xf86-input-evdev from testing (after you removed anything regarding input stuff, including serverflags from xorg.conf?)

I haven't tested it with xorg-server and xf86-input-evdev from testing, but I guess you mean xorg-server 1.5.3-4 and xf86-input-evdev 2.1.0-1, which are now in extra.
With these versions it's got even worse.

Entering a command at the bash prompt seems to be a bit better but not much. But moc e.g. completely doesn't react. It only quits, when pressing 'Q' many times. And many times it crashes with "FATAL_ERROR: wgetch() failed", when a key is pressed.

No it was the package from extra.

I tried again with the "keyboard" driver and surprisingly its working now. I'm not sure if there were any updates to this package (xf86-input-keyboard) in the past few days.

Heiko: Does your keyboard work when running a plain xterm-session on X ?

With a plain xterm-session and evdev it seems to work. Then I don't have any problems with the keyboard.
But with a DE session, in my case an Xfce and earlier a KDE session, I've got this problem again with evdev as well as with keyboard or kbd.

Can you test your DE with a clean profile? (Try as another user, so that user's home dir is empty)

I already had a fresh Archlinux installation and I kept only a few non X related stuff from the home directory of my old installation. Nevertheless I created a new user with an empty home directory except of .bashrc etc. of course. The problem still exists.

Hi,

I've got a very similar problem :
while running Xfce, the first console vc/1 does not respond very well to keyboard (only 1 keypress every 2 or 3 is actually taken into acount). However, other vc's work perfectly, and if I logout from xfce, it works again in vc/1.

Details : I run latest Xorg and kernel, and use "kbd" driver. I use slim as login manager.