Accessibility keyboard settings get lost

Bug #209532 reported by davidr
40
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GNOME Applets
New
High
xkeyboard-config
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
Triaged
High
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Feisty i386, Hardy Beta AMD64 (at least)

When the Keyboard Accessibility settings for Enabling Sounds and Modifier Keys have been set - but NOT set to disable if more than one key is pressed - the settings stop working fairly rapidly in Hardy AMD64 and after most reboots in Feisty.

1. This is extremely annoying for those of us who need to hear when a modifier key is pressed.

2. In Hardy AMD64 the Caps Lock key does not beep when modifier sounds are enabled - in Feisty it does.

Please - this has been reported for years - please can more attention be paid to this minority group of users who need their Accessibility settings to be remembered by the system. It really is very important to some of us.

Thanks ...
David

WORKAROUND that works for some people:
1. Start gconf-editor (Configuration Editor).
2. Go to /desktop/gnome/accessibility
3. I had enabled Sticky Keys from Keyboard preferences before starting gconf-editor. I found that stickykeys_enable was checked. stickykeys_modifier_beep was checked. stickykeys_two_key_off was also checked. This is important, because I had specifically not enabled this option from Keyboard preferences. Nevertheless, it was checked. I unchecked this, and set value for timeout to an extremely large value (24000).

Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

It seems that if a modifier and another key are pressed at the same time it disables the Keyboard Accessibility settings for Enabling Sounds and Modifier Keys, even though "Disable if two keys pressed together" is NOT selected.

I have confirmed that the CapsLock key does not beep in Hardy Beta AMD64 but it does in Feisty.

Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

Please note that if "Disable sticky keys if two keys are pressed together", this is NOT changed in the Configuration Editor>desktop>gnome>accessibility>keyboard>"stickykeys_two_key_off" check box.

This is constantly reset (i.e. ticked) either by booting or something else. It is not possible to determine exactly when it gets reset as one does not know until after the event.

See: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5117901&postcount=1

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Hi davaweb,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

Changed in xkeyboard-config:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

Hi,
Here are the files you requested.
This is after my settings were disabled by rebooting. No customizations were made to xorg.conf.
I have reset my preferences but have not included the files after resetting them - I trust I understood you correctly.
David
1 - xorg.conf

Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

2 - lspci -vnnn

Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

3 - Xorg.0.log

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in xkeyboard-config:
importance: Undecided → High
status: Incomplete → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

I've forwarded this bug upstream for you. Could you please subscribe yourself to this bug, in case they need further information or wish you to test something. Thanks ahead of time!

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19417

Changed in xkeyboard-config:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

This was mis-filed against xkeyboard-config. More likely to be a GNOME bug. Needs to be re-triaged.

Changed in xkeyboard-config:
importance: Unknown → Undecided
status: Confirmed → New
status: New → Invalid
status: Triaged → New
Revision history for this message
tjagoda (tjagoda) wrote :

Assigning to the GNOME package which I believe is most suitable.

Revision history for this message
Balaji G (balajig81) wrote :

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

Thanks,
Cheers,
Balaji

Changed in gnome-applets (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Robbie Clemons (robclemons) wrote :

I believe this bug has been fixed in GNOME 2.26.1

Revision history for this message
josh g. (josh-thoughtlost) wrote :

I *think* I've had to turn on the "ignore duplicate keypresses" setting more than once since installing Jaunty, but I checked now and the setting did survive a reboot so I could be wrong.

I'll try to keep an eye on it and post back here if the setting persists for a week or so without resetting.

Revision history for this message
josh g. (josh-thoughtlost) wrote :

Ok, confirmed it's still happening in 2.26.1. It's less frequent than every reboot but has happened at least once over the course of a week.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Not confirming the issue but it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME)

Revision history for this message
josh g. (josh-thoughtlost) wrote :

Done.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=584578

(Not 100% sure if I mapped it to the right applet name; if someone who knows this stuff better than I do could check it that'd be great)

Changed in gnome-applets (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs)
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

AMD64 - i386 status not known
Since the recent update (8.04.3 LTS, kernel 2.6.24-24) after mid June 2009 (I have been away until a week ago) Keyboard accessibility has dramatically worsened:
1. settings do not survive session
2. most of the time settings do not survive reboots
3. stickeykeys_two_key_off is not surviving many reboots or sessions.

In other words, it has got worse.

No new software added.

Any idea of timing for a fix on this, please?

David

description: updated
Revision history for this message
josh g. (josh-thoughtlost) wrote :

Could someone else who is seeing this bug please go to the Gnome bug report and confirm it? Maybe then something will actually get done.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=584578

Revision history for this message
truant (launchpad-ninj4) wrote :

Stickykeys work - as far as I can tell - 100% fine in Maverick, at least for the way I use them. Settings are remembered, mouse clicks are events, etc.

I would update your Gnome bug report (and my dupe report at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=584938 ) but I can't remember my bugzilla login right now.

Next time I've got a Debian to hand, I'll check that too.

Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

Hi
Please could the developers include Caps On / Caps Off, Shift /Shift lock and Numlock On/Numlock Off - these are modifier keys too.

I raised this some time ago but nobody made a comment. For those of us without keyboard lights or sight impediments, the status of these keys is important. E.g. I want to kn ow when I press either if I am activating it or releasing it.

Shift - tone A
Shift lock - tone B
Shift unlock - tone A

Num Lock on - tone B
Num lock off - tone A

Caps lock on - tone B
Caps lock off - tone A

IMHO This should not be considered a feature request - it falls within key modifier.

Assistive technologies are too important to be taking all these years to work properly.

Regards
David

Revision history for this message
josh g. (josh-thoughtlost) wrote :

truant,
Hmm, could be something's fixed then. This just came back to mind for me yesterday as I picked up my linux netbook that I haven't used for a few months. The settings are correctly stored for me at the moment. I'll keep an eye on it as I use this for the next week or two and confirm if it's still working for me then.

David,
Those issues are also important but if this bug is primarily about whether or not the settings are being saved, then the issue of audio cues for modifier keys should be raised as a separate issue, either as a feature request or as a separate bug report.

 - josh g.

Revision history for this message
davidr (davaweb) wrote :

josh,

You are correct. As the originator of a bug report concerning ubuntu remembering settings and another re my above post, the two were combined by the team(?) a long time ago. As this thread is combined with other duplicates, I assume(d) the developers saw them as the same 'bug to be fixed'. IMHO, it shouldn't be a feature request - just part of the 'modifier key' package. Which, as I say, was combined some releases ago, with remembering settings.

I no longer have a record of the bug report, unfortunately.

I don't think the developers will be happy to start changing the package yet again. Release 7 onward had problems and it still is not fixed ...

I'll make a Feature request but I still bring people's attention again to what a modifier key traditionally has been. (bad English).

(Please excuse any bad expression)

David

Changed in gnome-applets:
importance: Unknown → High
Revision history for this message
MBdip (mbdip) wrote :

i had the same problem on ubuntu 13.04 64 bit... we need help

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