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I have Windows 8 and Ubuntu 14.10 as dual boot. I have PS2 keyboard. Sometimes randomly (can't reproduce yet) Ubuntu detects multiple different key presses when I press specific buttons. Some buttons work as normal but for 't' it writes 't.', for 'r' it writes 'r+', and some other buttons are also weird.

I checked keypressed with "xinput test" it does detect two different keypress for those keys. I have exactly the same issue on console (Ctrl+Alt+F1), so its not an X issue.

Reboot does not solve the issue, but when I start Windows after reboot, then reboot again and start Ubuntu it works fine again (this sequence solved the issue many times).

How can Windows affect Linux, why does the kernel produces this weird issue? Does anyone have similar issues, could you find a solution? Any ideas further debug the issue?

Kaz Wolfe
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VargaD
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  • Welcome to AskUbuntu! ;-) Have you ever had this bug when you cold-booted? (not having used Windows at all?) – Fabby Feb 13 '15 at 10:15
  • I usually start Ubuntu first, I always power off Windows so I can mount the Windows partitions in linux. But I usually don't cut power for 30 seconds before I turn on the computer. The issues still persist but rare and still can't reproduce. I will try with usb keyboard soon, but I guess it should work fine. – VargaD Feb 26 '15 at 20:12
  • Please do and report back. Furthermore, this smells like a BIOS problem, so if you can find a BIOS/UEFI firmware upgrade to your machine, please update that as well... – Fabby Feb 27 '15 at 11:37
  • Thanks for your answer Fabby. I updated bios to the latest version few weeks ago, but I still have the issue. – VargaD Feb 28 '15 at 12:14
  • Have you tried another keyboard? If yes, can you add the following parameter to the grub.conf file after quiet splash: atkbd.reset – Fabby Feb 28 '15 at 12:24
  • I looked into that parameter, it seems that linux kernel does not reset keyboard, so this parameter may solve the issue. I'm going to use it in the next weeks and will see. – VargaD Mar 02 '15 at 00:11
  • I'll convert it into an answer in the mean time... Please come back already to accept if it works for a few days... Not weeks. You can always leave another comment below the answer if it doesn'twork... – Fabby Mar 02 '15 at 14:19

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Works on all systems:

Please edit the default grub configuration file: 

sudo apt-get install gksudo
gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

and add atkbd.reset after quiet splash

and then update grub:

sudo update-grub

Works only on UEFI Systems:

Look for the "PS2 init option" in the motherboard UEFI setup. Set it from "Auto" (default) to "Enable".

Fabby
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  • OK, of course, I used stackoverflow before. I give it a try for two weeks, then accept your answer, and contact the motherboard manufacturer about issues they might want to fix. – VargaD Mar 03 '15 at 19:36
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    Seems that really solves the issue, I also found a PS2 init option in the motherboard EFI setup. Its auto by default, when I set it to Enable it also solves the issue. You should also mention that in the solution. Seems the motherboard sometimes thinks it doesn't have to initialize the keyboard. I think the option was added to speed up booting process. Thank you for your help, Fabby. – VargaD Apr 08 '15 at 22:39