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I have found a strange problem in my Ubuntu 12.04 laptop.
When the machine is started, everything is working fine. But if I press the Right Shift key, the keyboard starts to work abnormally as follows -

  1. All the letter keys is displayed in uppercase even if the caps lock are off.
  2. Number keys are not working.
  3. The Right Shift key is not working anymore.

I could not find any clue how to solve this. Any suggession is appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Stuugie

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Quick note: do not reinstall yet — that is usually unnecessary. described a Right-Shift press that leaves letters uppercase, breaks the number row, and causes some Left-Shift combos to fail; suggested reinstalling, but the faster path is to isolate whether this is a hardware (keyboard matrix/connection) or software (X/keyboard mapping/accessibility) problem and then act.

Basic, ordered checks

  1. Test outside the running Unity session — reboot to the firmware/GRUB screen or a Live USB. If the problem appears before Ubuntu loads, it is hardware.
  2. Try a USB keyboard. If the USB keyboard works normally, the laptop keyboard or its connector is suspect.
  3. Check Accessibility/Universal Access (Sticky Keys/Slow Keys) and NumLock/Fn overlay in System Settings — disable any typing aids.

Useful diagnostics (run these in a terminal)

xev            # open a small window and press Right Shift; note keycode and keysyms
xinput list    # find the keyboard device id
xinput test <id>   # watch raw key events from that device
sudo showkey --scancodes   # (on a virtual console: Ctrl+Alt+F1) shows scancodes outside X
dmesg | grep -i input

Quick software fixes

  • Reset X keyboard options: setxkbmap -layout us -option ""
  • To remap a misbehaving key temporarily: use xev to get the keycode, then xmodmap -e "keycode <N> = Shift_L" (replace <N>).

If diagnostics point to hardware (no events in showkey or the same failure in BIOS/Live USB), the likely remedies are cleaning/reseating the keyboard connector or keyboard replacement. If diagnostics show odd keysyms or stuck modifiers in X, the setxkbmap/xmodmap steps above will help and will avoid a full reinstall.

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Member Avatar for Stuugie

Maybe a reinstall? I just installed Ubuntu 12.04 a couple weeks ago and have had no problems. I just test my right shift and there were no issues.

Member Avatar for java_programmer

Thanks Stuugie for replying.
It was working fine sometimes back, but started to behave abnormally suddenly. I just found that some other keys are also not working properly. For example, if I press Left Shift + any key, it is working as expected, but Left Shift + t or Left Shift + c is not working while Left Shift + a or b etc working fine. I suspect may be the keyboard settings have some problem but still no clue.

Member Avatar for Stuugie

I think a reinstall may be in order.

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