Xfce Forum

gilgamesh

Member

Registered: 2023-06-06

Posts: 45

[Solved]Sticky keys problem?

Hello,

I'm using Xfce with Debian 12 and I'm having a random problem with the laptop keyboard which seems to behave erratically. When this happens I have to reboot and everything is fine for a few days, usually 2 or 3 days, before it happens again.

I've recently noticed that I can mimic some of the seemingly random behavior of this keyboard. For example, I can:

* highlight all open tabs in Firefox at the same time, using only the left mouse click
* open an “Applications” drop-down menu as if I were using the right mouse click
* prevent the keyboard shortcut to open a terminal from working

All I have to do is press the left Ctrl key and hold it down when I press another key. This Ctrl key seems to be permanently "sticky". In fact, I had an accessibility option
Settings > Accessibility > Sticky keys “enabled” and Lock “enabled”. Ten days ago, I removed these options and since then, everything has worked perfectly. But as this is a random problem, nothing is 100% certain yet.

Is there anything else I can test to be sure that this problem is due to a malfunction of the Sticky Keys option?

Last edited by gilgamesh (2025-01-14 10:16:23)

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Debian 12

eriefisher

Moderator

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 601

Re: [Solved]Sticky keys problem?

Are you saving your sessions by any chance. You may want to delete old sessions.

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

gilgamesh

Member

Registered: 2023-06-06

Posts: 45

Re: [Solved]Sticky keys problem?

Are you saving your sessions by any chance. You may want to delete old sessions.

no, I don't save my sessions, but one is saved: Sun Sep 8. It's probably the first one, the one when I installed Debian 12 on my new machine. I deleted it.

My settings are:
* Session Chooser = disabled
* Logout Settings > Automatically save session = disabled

PS1: 15 days without keyboard problems, which has never happened before. I may have found a workaround, but unfortunately that doesn't help me much in finding out what's wrong with my installation.

PS2: I had exactly the same problem on another laptop with the same options enabled. I finally realized that you have to leave more time between the first keystroke and the second if the “lock” option is activated.

Last edited by gilgamesh (2025-01-14 10:21:26)

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Debian 12