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Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work

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> Hi,
> 
> I have a Dell Latitude 5580 laptop, and have been a happy debian unstable user for 20 years. I have a very weird problem with its builtin keyboard which slows down my work significantly (ctrl-c, ctrl-x, ENTER etc. do not work):
> 
> 
> Since several months ago some keys on my keyboard do not work, in all the applications (e.g. gnome-terminal, emacs, thundebird, firefox). When I press on them, very often nothing happens (usually, I press on them for 10 seconds to make appear the character), sometimes the key appears twice, and sometimes it works flawlessly. When it works, it works for several minutes or several hours; similarly, when it does not work, it does not for several minutes or hours or days. I use very often suspend/resume, I also use xmodmap and awesome window manager, but I suppose this is irrelevant.
> 
> 
> The problematic keys are found on the last row: xcvm,. (but zbn work) and the bottom keys (ctrl, alt, window, however space works always correctly), plus ENTER key.
> 
> 
> I have always thought that it is a X problem which will get fixed. Interesting, a few days ago I noticed that on grub I have the same problem: c and ENTER did not work. So now I wonder if it is not a hardware problem, however sometimes it works for a long time!
> 
> 
> I have looked at Xorg.0.log, without seeing anything wrong.
> 
> How can I track down where the problem is, and fix it?

Thank you to all for your comments.  After the post, it worked ok until 
yesterday.  Yesterday I shut down the laptop and noticed that the 
problem affected grub again, so X is not faulty.  I opened the laptop, 
but only the back cover; the keyboard is on the front cover, and 
difficult for me to open, so I have not opened it.  There was no dust, 
but I blew inside.  I restarted the laptop and the keys have been 
working correctly since then.  If the problem occurs again, I will try 
an external keyboard, and lifting up the keys.  I will come back to you 
when it is completely fixed.

Best regards,
Eugen

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Thread

Some keys on the keyboard do not work Eugen Dedu <eugen.dedu@univ-fcomte.fr> - 2020-08-10 14:20 +0200
  Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-10 15:00 +0200
    Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-08-11 01:10 +0200
      Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-11 01:50 +0200
        Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-08-11 04:40 +0200
          Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-11 15:20 +0200
            Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-08-11 16:00 +0200
              Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Doug McGarrett <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2020-08-11 22:00 +0200
                Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-08-11 23:30 +0200
                Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2020-08-12 11:50 +0200
                Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Doug McGarrett <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2020-08-12 20:00 +0200
            Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-08-11 16:30 +0200
              Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-11 17:50 +0200
                Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-11 23:00 +0200
                Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-08-11 23:40 +0200
                Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2020-08-12 11:50 +0200
  Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Stefan Krusche <linux@stefan-krusche.de> - 2020-08-10 15:00 +0200
  Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Doug McGarrett <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2020-08-10 20:00 +0200
  Re: Keyboards, was Is there a way to corrupt the BIOS …, Some keys …  do not work David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-08-11 06:30 +0200
  Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work Eugen Dedu <eugen.dedu@univ-fcomte.fr> - 2020-08-14 11:00 +0200
    Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2020-08-14 22:00 +0200

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