bluetooth keyboard shift and ctrl key don't work

[juicestain]

hi there.

this post is all lowercase because i'm having a problem with my rocketfish bluetooth keyboard.

i've been searching for an answer to this and as a linux n00b i'm kinda stumped. i've tried this on a ubuntu desktop install and now a mythbuntu install, both 9.10. my shift key and my control key just won't work. i've tried changing my keyboard layout, changing my desktop appearance from normal to none, and i've even tried the 'gdesklets configure' command from terminal... even though gdesklets isn't installed.

i'm not sure if this is a hardware issue or a software issue as i don't know how to test it.

does anyone know how to fix this

p.s.-that last sentence would have had a question mark on it, but i can't hold shift to make one....

[juicestain]

bump

anyone

[juicestain]

so after some googling, i found xev... and when i press shift, ctrl and the 'winkey' they return as keypresses.... however i noticed that the xstringlookup returns 0 bytes. heres lines from my xev.

KeyPress event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93363526, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x0, keycode 65 (keysym 0x20, space), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (20) " "
XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (20) " "
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93363668, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x0, keycode 65 (keysym 0x20, space), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (20) " "
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93369672, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x0, keycode 105 (keysym 0xffe4, Control_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93369673, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x4, keycode 105 (keysym 0xffe4, Control_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93371273, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x0, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93371290, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x1, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93377889, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x0, keycode 134 (keysym 0xffec, Super_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
root 0x13c, subw 0x0, time 93378024, (-350,-75), root:(521,397),
state 0x40, keycode 134 (keysym 0xffec, Super_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

FocusOut event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x3c00001,
mode NotifyNormal, detail NotifyNonlinear

how can i map these keys

[hydrogen18]

i have the same exact keyboard and the same exact problem. what is going on here

[hydrogen18]

I did some more tests. xev shows X as receiving the event identically to whenever I press a modifier key on my laptop's internal keyboard. In other words, xev doesn't show any difference between pressing shift on my laptop's keyboard and the rocketfish keyboard. However its clear that the one from the rocketfish bluetooth keyboard gets ignored. This happens under multiple environments, a terminal, jwm, gnome. The really interesting part is that if I press shift on my laptop's internal keyboard and press keys on the rocketfish bluetooth keyboard then they get capitalizes. It's like X is just ignoring modifiers from the bluetooth keyboard.

[brainsick]

I just picked one of these up from Best Buy today. Having the same problem.

I *do* get different results from xev when using one keyboard vs another.

xev output from working keyboard (tested shift-, ctrl-, alt-: /):

KeyRelease event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13558850, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x10, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
"   XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d) "
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13563499, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x10, keycode 50 (keysym 0xffe1, Shift_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13565323, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x11, keycode 61 (keysym 0x3f, question), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (3f) "?"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (3f) "?"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13565491, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x11, keycode 61 (keysym 0x3f, question), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (3f) "?"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13566619, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x11, keycode 50 (keysym 0xffe1, Shift_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13568187, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x10, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13568844, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x14, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1f) ""
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1f) ""
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13569004, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x14, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1f) ""
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13569772, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x14, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13571228, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x10, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13571676, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x18, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13571836, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x18, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13572516, (-955,530), root:(775,581),
    state 0x18, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

xev output from modifier-deprived keyboard:

KeyRelease event, serial 29, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13721164, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 104 (keysym 0xff8d, KP_Enter), same_screen YES,
"   XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d) "
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13724085, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x0, keycode 50 (keysym 0xffe1, Shift_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13724578, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x11, keycode 50 (keysym 0xffe1, Shift_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13724578, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13724667, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13727595, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13728113, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x14, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13728113, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13728223, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13730572, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13731149, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x18, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13731149, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001,
    root 0xb0, subw 0x0, time 13731261, (444,-256), root:(450,616),
    state 0x10, keycode 61 (keysym 0x2f, slash), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2f) "/"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

You can see that in the modifier-deprived xev log the modifiers are immediately "released". That explains why the modifier isn't being applied to the key, but why is the keyboard behaving this way?

[brainsick]

Bump. Can anyone provide any insight into whether this is a plain 'ol broken keyboard or whether there's something on the software side we can do?

I really like the layout of this keyboard, but I'm going to return it if I can't get the modifiers working correctly.

[elrod]

Wish i had seen this thread before buying this keyboard. Does anyone have an update? If I want to hack where would i start?

[sdlynx]

Wish i had seen this thread before buying this keyboard. Does anyone have an update? If I want to hack where would i start?

Same here. I guess I'm bumping this thread as well...

[tekoholix]

I believe that I am having the same trouble, but I'm running Kubuntu Lucid.

Hadn't yet realized that the CTRL was also not working, until finding this thread, and am now aware that ALT has the same issue.

I'd sure like to be able to use this mouse/KBD combo that I've purchased, but I guess I'll wait until this issue can be resolved...