Eccentric keyboard
Rick Murray (539) 13863 posts |
Hi, I have been given a keyboard by a friend. It is marked as a Trust keyboard, aimed at old-school gamers (so W, A, S, D and cursors are heavy duty rubber keys – Chuckie Egg anyone? ;-) ). Apparently this keyboard supports up to eight key rollover. When in the desktop and not in an editor, frequently the keyboard acts incorrectly – for example Ctrl-Shift held and clicking something will run it instead of opening it (I never could remember if it was Ctrl or Shift, so I just used to hold both). Conversely, closing a window would pin it to the backdrop. When in Zap, Sh^C is used to start a compile. This process would freeze until I then press another key, such as one of the cursors. I guess RISC OS might still be thinking Ctrl or something is held? Has anybody experienced this, and if so, is there a fix? Maybe a USBQuirk setting to slow down the data rate or somesuch? Here’s the USB info:
Thanks, Rick. |
Rick Murray (539) 13863 posts |
Nobody? Nobody had a keyboard where the modifiers (ctrl [and|or] shift) got messed up? [on a Beagle xM] Okay then, any thoughts as to stuff I might do to resolve this? [I would prefer to fix the software, not “buy another keyboard” as this issue might end up affecting newbies, I guess it depends upon what is actually happening…] |
Rick Murray (539) 13863 posts |
Following on, it looks as if this keyboard does not work with Linux either. The actual symptoms under RISC OS (from the little I’ve actually used it), one or both of the modifier keys (Ctrl + Shift) seems to get ‘stuck’ (holding a key to open an application folder doesn’t work; and at other times double-clicking a runnable file loads it into Edit/Zap), and needs an additional alphanumeric keypress to ‘clear’. I’ve also noticed that my MoreKeys (uses Ctrl+Alt+key) can be a bit erratic. This is the keyboard (on Maplin’s site). My friend got it because the orange keys reminded him of his Beeb (!). I, personally, suspect the “special gaming features” (anti-ghosting 8-key-simultanteous) is playing up with standard keyboard drivers. I have found a message describing some of the issues and the resolution, but this stuff is gibberish to me – perhaps somebody more au fait with keyboard USB would understand it? Message: http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-usb/msg62270.html Briefly:
Hope this helps…somebody. ;-) |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6048 posts |
I’ve poked the keyboard drivers in the past (to fix a similar problem with the TouchBook trackpad, which wasn’t obeying the HID spec), so I could probably have a shot at this. Shame that Linux code is GPL’d; I guess patching the consumer usage count is easy enough for me to do myself, but working out how to fix the LEDs without copying the Linux patch and without having a keyboard to test with could be a bit tricky! (unless by some freak chance the LEDs are working for you?) |
Rick Murray (539) 13863 posts |
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Actually, the LEDs are working! Indeed, the only problem I am having is that modifier keys seem to get lost/messed up. Therefore, Linux— RISCOS++ ;-) |
Jerome Mathevet (1630) 19 posts |
Hi guys, |
Ben Avison (25) 445 posts |
The way RISC OS intends the France keyboard layout to work is shown in the DrawFile here Do the same buttons do anything when you choose a different keyboard layout in !Configure? |
Jerome Mathevet (1630) 19 posts |
@ben: “File version number is too high” from Draw 1.19 |
Ben Avison (25) 445 posts |
Ah, there seems to be a bug in our CVS viewer – the file appears to have gone through a Latin1 → UTF8 filter (meant for text files, and that’s a binary file). I’ll give the webmaster a prod to see it it can be fixed! In the meantime, you should be able to read it if you download a source archive – for example this one The file is inside the directory castle.RiscOS.Sources.Internat.IntKey.Layouts. |
Jerome Mathevet (1630) 19 posts |
Upon investigation, the layout of my keyboard was the same as the one in the CVS… After testing of a WinXP PC, my keyboard had those keys completely dead (beyond repair). So RISC OS wasn’t at fault, sorry guys ;( |