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I have an Asus Q500A with win8 and Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit with linux kernel 3.8.0-32-generic. I am using gnome-panel, and xserver-xorg-lts-raring.

I have been experiencing problems with the keyboard short-cuts since I had a fresh install.

Fn+F10 is supposed to mute my system, but instead it will repeatedly press d. Fn+F11 is volume down, but it presses c. Fn+F12 is volume up, presses b repeatedly.

Other on-board short-cuts such as adjusting screen and led brightness work most of the time, but sometimes press other letters repeatedly. Also, sometimes my Ctrl gets held down for no reason. Everything works fine in windows. I have tried installing all recommends and did sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a (use caution with this command) to reconfigure all packages, which did not solve my problem.

I have tried using KeyTouch editor to edit keymaps, navigating to /usr/shar/x11/xkb/keymap when I try opening any of these files it says file contains no keyboard element.

I think If I were just able to remap my keyboard it might solve my issues, otherwise if anyone knows where I can get asus drivers for 12.04 please let me know.

Apparently I didn't have all repositories enabled. I executed the following commands and am trying the updates they give me. Getting linux_kernel 3.8.0-33 generic as well as a bunch of other packages:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe"
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main universe restricted multiverse"
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) partner"

I tried using keytouch along with keytouch-editor to set my extra function keys. It reads the keys when I press them, but then they don't function as I set them.

I tried using showkey -k and pressing the keys to see how they are read. I noticed the problem key combonations do not read as being released. Just pressed. The other keys do display released.

hydroxide
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  • I wish you all the best! Although I want you to test your system while booting Live CD/DVD/USB. Do you get same problem. you can easily make your Pen-drive boot-able using Startup Disk Creator – Saurav Kumar Oct 26 '13 at 19:52
  • I have tried that with 12.04 12.10, and 13.04. Same problems. I also tried a fresh install on a different hard drive to no avail. – hydroxide Oct 27 '13 at 01:39
  • Okay, I updated everything after getting those repositories enabled, then I redid sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a and reconfigured xorg with no luck... (I made sure I removed all residual packages first.) – hydroxide Oct 27 '13 at 17:43
  • when I boot into Ubuntu it says "unable to write bytes: broken pipe" I looked around and it is related to drivers. I am wondering if there are drivers for my system for Ubuntu. – hydroxide Nov 03 '13 at 04:34
  • I have my keyboard set to not press keys repeatedly which is working around my shortcuts repeatedly pressing keys. My system is running better on xserver-xorg-lts-raring. The mouse-pad has been working most of the time. Keyboard shortcuts still not working right tough. – hydroxide Nov 03 '13 at 04:49
  • It is possible that keyboard shortcuts were reset. You may have to set your keyboard shortcuts. Search Keyboard in dash and go to Shortcuts tab. It would help you. – Saurav Kumar Nov 03 '13 at 08:06
  • The keyboard short-cuts don't respond to the combination keys I am having trouble with. – hydroxide Nov 09 '13 at 07:01

3 Answers3

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This sounds like an issue with the asus acpi kernel module, try running the latest version from ACPI for Asus Laptops and see if that fixes the issue. Additionally take a look in /etc/acpi/ folder and see if you have any asus specific scripts and settings there yet. Does xev show only the normal letters that were being repeated, or also the XF86 keyevents?

IsoLinearCHiP
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  • I ran sudo apt-get install acpi which I apparently did not have! Still having mostly same issues, but I noticed that showkey -k now does respond to me releasing problem keys (See above edit). I will try rebooting and messing around with keytouch and will get back to you! – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 00:17
  • Okey, now after reboot it is no longer recognizing key release for problem key combos. It does recognize key release for keys individually, but when I hold fn+f11 for example it says "keycode 46 press" but not release. When I press f11 by itself it does recognize release. Some fn combos do work. Also, other keys besides h do not work the first time I press them, such as c. These seem to be the keys that are pressed when I try to use the fn combos instead of intended function. The first time I Use fn11 after booting it adjust the volume as desired, but then either does nothing, or holds down c – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 00:31
  • Okay, I looked in the /etc/acpi folder and saw nothing related to volume. Truly the most annoying part of my problem is the ctrl key being held down at weird times, and the mouse getting stuck in grab mode. This causes major problems sometimes when I am typing. I get around it by holding ctrl+alt and pressing f6 them f7 to go into shell and come back. I think at some point it might cause me to save something accidentally by pressing s which could be a problem. – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 00:37
  • I am reconfiguring packages using the following commands: 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure $(dpkg -l | awk '{print $2}' | grep "^xserver" | tr '\n' ' ')' , 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure $(dpkg -l | awk '{print $2}' | grep 'lts-raring' | tr '\n' ' ')' , and 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure acpi' and then 'sudo update-initramfs -u' because I have a new kernel '3.8.0-34-generic ' and I will reboot and get back to you. Most of those commands were taken from http://askubuntu.com/questions/342276/experiencing-major-issues-on-graphic-displays/344625#344625 which has been very useful in this issue. – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 00:52
  • No apparent change. I will noticed that the keycodes for the key combos that don't work are the same as the letters they press. – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 01:00
  • Also, I am unable to boot to my new kernel! I ran update-grub as well as sudo update-initframs. I use grub customizer and the new kernel does not appear in it. – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 01:02
  • Both of which DO recognize my new kernel, it just doesn't display in grub, or grub customizer. I tried file, refresh from grub customizer too. – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 01:07
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    Normally update-grub should automatically detect all kernels in /boot. If for some reason that fails,you could allways just edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg manually and copy and paste an existing block and change the path to the appropriate kernel. – IsoLinearCHiP Nov 16 '13 at 12:58
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    You mention you didnt have the package acpi installed (actually this is not strictly necisarry AFAIK), is the package acpi-support by chance also not installed? If I am not mistaken, this package contains the event handlers and so forth. On a side note have you seen the page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Hotkeys/Troubleshooting yet? Maybe it contains some helpfull hints. – IsoLinearCHiP Nov 16 '13 at 13:04
  • acpi-support was installed automatically with acpi. – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 17:34
  • And update-grub DOES recognize my new kernel, it just doesn't show up in grub. I will check out grub.cfg though – hydroxide Nov 16 '13 at 17:36
  • Okay, I edited the grub.cfg and successfully booted to new kernel. Didn't actually solve anything, but it worked! – hydroxide Nov 17 '13 at 01:23
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    Did the tips from the hotkeys troubleshooting page help in any way? – IsoLinearCHiP Nov 19 '13 at 21:00
  • Okay, I have read through and tried all of the stuff on the hotkeys trouleshooting page. I am a bit confused about what to do with the gconf-editor. I have determined that all of the f keys (1-12) are read correctly. When I try to use the fn+fkey combos some of them will hold down letter keys. These same letter keys sometimes don't work the first time I press them. Sometimes ctrl and or alt get held down arbitrarily. Going to shell and back fixes this (ctrl+alt)(f6,f7). – hydroxide Dec 01 '13 at 07:55
  • I'm sorry to say I'm out of ideas. You could try running some other Linux live Distro to determine if the issue is specific to Ubuntu or Linux in general. Try avoiding to use another Debian based Distro as the chances of that bug being present there would be rather high. Maybe something like Arch or Gentoo, if they have live CDs (not sure on that aspect). If the error does not happen there either as with Windows, at least you have in narrowed down to Ubuntu and you should file a bugreport and hope for the best. – IsoLinearCHiP Dec 04 '13 at 17:57
  • I would rather avoid switching from Ubuntu. I rather like it and haven't had these problems with any other computers. I tried a live disk again and this time the key combos seem to all work, however they are still assigned the same keycodes as letters I haven't experienced the problem with ctrl and alt being held down yet on the new installation but I haven't tested it much. – hydroxide Jan 25 '14 at 02:26
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I have right the same prolem with my Q500A on ubuntu 13.10 . But curiously it sometimes working on and off .

As you seem to have an intensive research on this key bug . I've decide to abort to solve it. I've just change the short cut in the keyboard setting (sound-media)

something like ctrl+f11 instead of fn+f11.

Alvar
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victor
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  • I did finally just make a new shortcut for my sound options. What annoys me the most is the ctrl and alt keys arbitrarily thinking they are being pressed. Do you have that problem as well? – hydroxide Apr 20 '14 at 21:59
  • The hardware in my asus q500a seems to be working in Ubuntu 14.04. – hydroxide May 22 '14 at 02:01
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All my hardware is now working with both 14.04, and a fresh 12.04 desktop install. Unfortunately, I never actually found out what was going wrong, but I've been testing for about 3 weeks now and everything works perfect.

hydroxide
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