SUCCESSFULLY DIAGNOSED, with WORKAROUND Many thanks to Thomas Lübking for help diagnosing
This is due to an accessibility "feature" known as "slow keys" *Somehow*, the feature gets randomly activated during normal use of the OS. The normal user warning for this is a system bell (which may not be heard), so it's easy to miss; there is no graphical indicator of any sort. Normally though, this feature should not be activated in the first place. FIX / WORKAROUND: - open the System Settings > Accessibility (or type "kcmshell4 access" in a terminal) - under "[tab]Keyboard Filters" you may see Sticky Keys enabled if you are suffering from this; disable it and hit Apply - to prevent this from happening again, go to "[tab]Activation Gestures", disable "Use gestures to activate...", set the inactivity timeout to the lowest possible setting (1min), and enable all the notification features suggested severity: Highest (because it makes people's system unusable and they have no idea how to fix it) how this should be fixed: - source of random activation should be found and fixed how this can be mitigated: - kubuntu system settings should be set to those described in "FIX" to reduce chances of occurring - KDE code can be modified to show a prominent accessibility status indicator, or require typing "confirm" This is bug is suspected to be due to an Ubuntu configuration of either the base system or KDE packages, though I am unsure what might affect usability settings of all desktops. (Maybe it's also possible that there exists some activation gesture which will cause a popup to appear, but the user will hit Enter while typing?) go4linux's comment should also be investigated, because it may indicate this problem is also occurring in other desktop environments; if so that would help track down the cause of the random activations if it's the same issue -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/746892 Title: Keyboard randomly stops working, but autorepeat and mouse work To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/746892/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
