Two keys on keyboard suddenly failing [capitals work fine]!?

[Nick de Witt]

Hi everyone,

Some days ago I installed Kubuntu 16.04 on my MacBook Pro. Everything
worked fine until two keys (x and z) suddenly stopped working. There is
no input when I press them in whatever window. The capitals X and Z work
normally!? When I tried XEV, I got (for functioning a and for the two broken
ones):

KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 1976689, (67,524), root:(67,553),
    state 0x0, keycode 38 (keysym 0x61, a), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (61) "a"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (61) "a"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 1976777, (67,524), root:(67,553),
    state 0x0, keycode 38 (keysym 0x61, a), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (61) "a"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

FocusOut event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

FocusIn event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor

KeymapNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  4294967263 0   0   0   0   0   32  0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 1979785, (67,524), root:(67,553),
    state 0x0, keycode 53 (keysym 0x78, x), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (78) "x"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

FocusOut event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

FocusIn event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor

KeymapNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  2   0   0   0   0   0   16  0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    root 0xd9, subw 0x0, time 1981169, (67,524), root:(67,553),
    state 0x0, keycode 52 (keysym 0x7a, z), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (7a) "z"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

FocusOut event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    mode NotifyNormal, detail NotifyNonlinear

ColormapNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    colormap 0x22, new NO, state ColormapUninstalled

ColormapNotify event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6e00001,
    colormap 0x22, new NO, state ColormapInstalled

Could someone (please, please, please) help me to remap these keys?! Any idea how this could happen?

Many thanks!!

[TWPonKubuntu]

Nick, since keyboards do die, have you tried connecting an external keyboard? My laptop keyboard is totally fried, but I am able to use a USB keyboard .

This should identify whether your internal keyboard is the source of the failure.

Another option is to boot from a bootable (live) CD or live USB, again as a test.

[GreyGeek]

That x and z don't work but X and Z do works is because each is assigned a different hex value. Can pop those two keys off the board, clean underneath them and pop them back on (without breaking anything! )

[Nick de Witt]

Thank you guys. I have tried an eternal keyboard. The same problem persists, so it is definitely not a hardware issue. I didn't eXpect it to be because capital X works (using the same key crtl+X, ctrl+Z work as well) and because of the output in XEV that I pasted above. In XEV the system registers small X, but it's followed by an array of Zerros.

I also tried to change a layout, but it doesn't help either.

If you have any other idea what could go wrong, please let me know!

[Nick de Witt]

Ok, I solved it. At some point I assigned fn+> and fn + < to shortcuts for switching between desktops. Somehow (!?) this got mapped to x and z. The clue was actually in the xev output that I posted before. In the Virtual Desktops session in Settings, the shortcuts appeared as < and > (and these actually worked as well!!).

This post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1...e-the-down-key was helpful to get what's going on.

Thanks again!

[whitepine]

Thanks for this Nick! I had actually replaced my keyboard because the right alt key was not working, turns out I had it set as the compose key.