Holding Ctrl + f/b/p/n/etc. randomly prints the character

Holding Ctrl + f/b/p/n/etc. randomly prints the character

[Matthew Crisanti]

Whenever I hold down ctrl and f, for example, the caret will move 
forward how one would expect, but after moving 15 or so spaces it 
inserts an 'f' or two, then continues moving the caret forward while 
continuously adding 'f's at random intervals until I let go. This also 
happens with ctrl + b,n,p,v, and others, I'm sure. This is not only 
annoying, but also dangerous to my code, as sometimes I don't even 
notice when a character gets inserted until I try to compile. I'm 
assuming this is a common problem, since this happens to me both in 
gentoo and ubuntu, but I couldn't seem to come up with the correct 
search string in google to find the answer. I would really appreciate 
any help.

Re: Holding Ctrl + f/b/p/n/etc. randomly prints the character

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 30.10.2007 um 22:51 schrieb Matthew Crisanti:

> I'm assuming this is a common problem

I'd presume this is a problem with your keyboard. Is it USB or  
another? Is connected to an USB port? Do you have more USB ports to  
choose from? Does each one show the same? What happens when you use  
another keyboard? What happens when you use your keyboard with  
another PC?

--
Greetings

   Pete

Ce qui été compris n'existe plus.    (Paul Eluard)

Re: Holding Ctrl + f/b/p/n/etc. randomly prints the character

[Matthew Crisanti]

> "Peter Dyballa" <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE> wrote in message
> news:mailman.2788.1193823588.18990.help-gnu-> emacs@gnu.org...

> Am 30.10.2007 um 22:51 schrieb Matthew Crisanti:

> > I'm assuming this is a common problem

> I'd presume this is a problem with your keyboard. Is it USB or  another?
> Is connected to an USB port? Do you have more USB ports to  choose from?
> Does each one show the same? What happens when you use  another keyboard?
> What happens when you use your keyboard with  another PC?


Well it's a laptop, so the keyboard is integrated. I don't think it's a
hardware problem, though, since the problem doesn't show up in Vista. The
problem also doesn't occur when I use a USB keyboard.

Right now, I'm running Vista using vmware from within ubuntu, and I'm
getting the same problem , so it can't be a problem with an emacs
setting or anything, since I'm using the same emacs config file that I use
when I boot into Vista normally. Since the problem occurs in both gentoo and
ubuntu, and the only thing common between them that I can think of is the
kernel .config file that I use to compile the kernels for both, I'm assuming
it's a problem with my kernel, and that I'm in the wrong newsgroup. Any 
suggestions are still welcome, however.

Re: Holding Ctrl + f/b/p/n/etc. randomly prints the character

[Joost Kremers]

Matthew Crisanti wrote:
> Well it's a laptop, so the keyboard is integrated. I don't think it's a
> hardware problem, though, since the problem doesn't show up in Vista. The
> problem also doesn't occur when I use a USB keyboard.

the latter suggests that your laptop keyboard *is* (part of) the problem.

on the physical keyboard, the pressing of the control key and the pressing
of a letter key are two separate events. at some point in the chain toward
the response by the program, the system has to combine the two events and
turn it into a single event. my guess is that if you press and hold both
keys, some of the letter key presses are registered by the system as
occurring *without* an accompanying ctrl key press. 

> Right now, I'm running Vista using vmware from within ubuntu, and I'm
> getting the same problem , so it can't be a problem with an emacs
> setting or anything, since I'm using the same emacs config file that I use
> when I boot into Vista normally.

i would be very surprised if it were a problem with emacs, as it occurs
much lower down in the system.

> Since the problem occurs in both gentoo and
> ubuntu, and the only thing common between them that I can think of is the
> kernel .config file that I use to compile the kernels for both, I'm assuming
> it's a problem with my kernel, and that I'm in the wrong newsgroup. Any 
> suggestions are still welcome, however.

it may be a kernel problem, or it may be a problem with X. it may be that
you need to change your keyboard model in xorg.conf, or perhaps some
keyboard handling code in either the kernel or in X is faulty.

btw, i rarely if ever find the need in emacs to use C-f/b/p/n in the manner
that you describe. using M-f/b/p/n and other key bindings to move around in
a buffer is often much more effective.

-- 
Joost Kremers                                      joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)

Re: Holding Ctrl + f/b/p/n/etc. randomly prints the character

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 31.10.2007 um 21:59 schrieb Matthew Crisanti:

> Any suggestions are still welcome

As Joost Kremers already wrote: it most probably will have to do with  
your laptop's keyboard!

In UNIX you can find the little editors nano and pico that accept a  
few of the simple GNU Emacs commands, particularly Ctrl + f/b/p/n.  
How do they work?

Do you have access to some remote system? Does it have GNU Emacs,  
nano, pico? How do these remote programmes behave?

If your answer is more often than once a "The same" then it's your  
laptop's keyboard ...

--
Greetings

   Pete

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new  
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."
                                       Isaac Asimov