Keyboard freeze JOGL

[cuboctahedron]

My keyboard sometimes freezes completely (no ctrl-alt-bkspc, no capslock no numlock) after running programs which use JOGL. It's not entirely predictable: sometimes I can run programs (e.g. the demos which come with JOGL) many times and it won't happen, sometimes after only a few runs it happens, but it happens regularly enough to be very annoying. The keyboard always freezes just after closing a JOGL-based program. The only thing I can do is log-out-and-log-in-again with the mouse. I haven't had it happen with other OpenGL-involved programs like Blender or the KDE OpenGL screensavers. I'm using the standard install of JOGL and I'm using the i810 driver for my D610's Intel 915. I have not had keyboard freezes for any other reason.
Any ideas ? Even a workaround more efficient than logging-out-and-in would be appreciated. Many thanks.

[Snowhog]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL

The next time it happens, try using the 'magic key sequence' to shutdown. If this works, you know that the keyboard is not 'frozen' as you think.

When the keyboard 'appears' to be frozen, press and hold at the same time, Alt+SysReq (the PrtSc key). Then press in order, the r s e i u b keys. Your system will/should unlock and perform a normal shutdown.

[cuboctahedron]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL

Thanks, I'll try that and report back...

[cuboctahedron]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL

OK the magic sequence worked. Now what ?

[Snowhog]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL

Are you referring to the demo's on jogl-demos site?

If yes, are you observing the requirements listed for each demo item?

[cuboctahedron]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL

Yes, I am observing the requirements listed (& I'm using Java6 and the latest version of JOGL jogl-1.1.0-linux-i586). But you have given me a potential lead; I was running some of the examples (e.g. gears) from within Eclipse when the keyboard freezing happened (I guess I should have said that before but I didn't see how it could be significant). However, it looks like (at least so far) the freezing does not occur if I run the examples directly from the jogl-demos site (using java webstart) - i.e. no freezing yet and I've run the simple gears demo many times. Could it be that the problem is to do with running JOGL programs from Eclipse ? Hmmm.
What I don't understand is how a program could affect X this way.

[cuboctahedron]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL - solved

Well, the problem has kind-of gone away. I discovered that if I run a program that freezes the keyboard again (while the keyboard is frozen), and use the keyboard while it's running, it unfreezes! Then when I quit the program it stays unfrozen. That's good enough for me, it means I can go on coding.

Thanks for your help.

[Snowhog]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL

You gotta love a self thawing keyboard!

[cuboctahedron]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL - still annoying

I have come up against this same problem (keyboard freeze when using opengl) from a different direction today. I was running OpenCroquet, which uses OpenGL for its rendering, and the keyboard randomly froze just the same as with my Java JOGL application. I strongly suspect my display driver is the problem here and perhaps also the use of vertex arrays (I am using vertex arrays in both applications).

[dibl]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL - still annoying

I strongly suspect my display driver is the problem here

It's a fact that the keyboard is driven by /etc/X11/xorg.conf -- there could be some minor mismatch between your keyboard and the driver.

I have noticed in the past that the dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg script includes a keyboard-detecting routine. I've never needed it, so I have no idea how useful or accurate it is. If you back up your existing xorg.conf file, you could run the script and see what happens -- worst case it doesn't help and you restore the one you're using now.

[cuboctahedron]

Re: Keyboard freeze JOGL - resolved

Turns out it was nothing to do with OpenGL or JOGL, it was KDE slow keys. Turn off slow keys in accessibility options. The reason it was happening was that all the programs I was using used the shift key as a modifier, so I was pressing shift down for long periods and unknowingly activating slow keys.