Scroll-lock madness

[MattEvans]

Really not sure if this a hardware or software issue.. My scrolllock seems to have gone AWOL. The indicator LED doesn't light up when I press the scrolllock key; but, occasionally, the LED lights up, stays on no matter how much I hit the scroll-lock key itself, and only turns off after I hit random combinations of keys on the rest of the keyboard ( I'm not sure which ones, but hitting around the Shift/Ctrl/Winkey/Alt area seems to work.. )

Any ideas what could be causing this?

I'm running Mandriva 2007 community edition, KDE 3.5 Free, with the latest stable kernel version ( 2.6.17.16 ); this seems to happen regardless of what program I'm typing in ( examples Opera and KDevelop ). When the scrolllock light is on, I can't do proper selection of text and ( in Opera ) random hotkeys fire when I type -- I guess that's consistent with scrolllock being 'on'.

( as I was typing this it happened again, I'm not sure if occurs on certain key presses, its got me intrigiued.. )

[leo002000]

Have you considered, lifting the Scr LK key off and cleaning in and around the area? Check your hotkey setup on your keyb via the software the vendor normally supplies, usually to enable/disable Scr LK its something like "function key + Scr LK", if its a bog standard keyb for a desktop, replace it and try that.

[MattEvans]

Well, the whole scroll lock/sysrq/break well is pretty clean compared to the main well; I don't use scroll lock or those other 2 keys much in day-to-day workings.

But, really good idea to remove scroll lock from the keymap!! I've given that a try, at the level of Xorg settings, lets hope it works - all I can do is wait until it _doesn't_ happen again :P

It's an old keyboard, so maybe this is a sign I need a new one..

[leo002000]

very few people ever use the Scr LK. If its just an old keyb, simple get another cheap one! Glad things seem to be looking up

[DimaYasny]

the scroll lock light is used in linux for indication of different keymaps being switched on, and can really be configured to do anything you want it to. must be a setting somewhere. I've never touched Mandriva though, so you'll have to google for it yourself

[MattEvans]

Well, 'disabling' the scroll lock using xmodmap doesn't seem to have had any effect, because the activity of _my_ scroll lock is still 'formally non-deterministic'. It sometimes does nothing for an hour, and then halfway through typing something the light will come on, my cursor selection will be un-workable, and hot keys fire off in whatever program I'm using. Sometimes it'll go away for an hour after I hit the control and arrow keys a few times, sometimes it'll go away and be back in 10 seconds. Hitting control, winkey, and alt key whilst hitting arrow keys always makes it go away; don't ask how I worked that 'solution' out.

Am gonna buy a new keyboard as soon as I get the time to go past a shop that sells keyboards. A pity - since I quite like this one. I'm thinking now ( because of the total randomness of it, and the fact that hitting random keys hard on the other side of the keyboard solves the problem temporarily ) that the keyboard is getting old, and the tracks on the circuit board are worn/confused. I'm not atall sure if that's the case, or even likely, though.

I can boot into Windows and see if I'm getting the same kinda thing there.. but.. I'd rather not wait around in Windows for an hour.

[DimaYasny]

well, it really sounds like a bad k/b
or a virus/rootkit

[MattEvans]

I've considered that to; but I've never experienced a virus on Linux and wouldn't know where to start finding out if or not I have one. Worrying; if that's the case.

That said, I really stick to only installing things via the package manager ( official sources ), get all the latest security updates, run a firewall, etc. I wouldn't consider myself high risk, although, things happen..

[DimaYasny]

well, check the running processes, look for strange out of place files with weird permissions and unknown users as owners

also, there are quite a few antiviruses and rootkit revealers for linux, just google it (c)