How to set keyboard repeat delay and speed in Ubuntu Gnome 16.10?

Question

In previous versions I could tweak the keyboard repeat delay and speed by going to Settings → Keyboard → Typing. Now in Ubuntu GNOME 16.10 (with GNOME 3.20.2) that panel seems to be missing.

How can I configure those settings in this version?

Solution 1

These settings are under Settings → Universal Access → Typing → Repeat Keys. You have to click the Repeat Keys row item, which brings up a pop-up dialog with two settings: Delay and Speed.

This works in Ubuntu 17.04 and above.

In older versions of Ubuntu, the Speed setting worked in reverse: the lower the speed, the faster the repeat rate. This is no longer the case.

Solution 2

On ubuntu 14.04 and up this will survive after reboot:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.keyboard repeat-interval 30
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.keyboard delay 250

Solution 3

If nothing else works, try running xset r rate 220 40 from a console.

For me, the HID layer got broken in some way and config GUI didn't work, gsettings didn't work, only xset worked.

This solution however is not persistent - will disappear on restart (unless added to ~/.bashrc).

Solution 4

I'm a Ubuntu 18.04.3 User.... and not a techie. I tried changing the kdrate in terminal. I was told it had changed, but it didn't change the slow keyboard input. This low tech method worked for me. Go to "Show Applications", where there's a "InputMethod" utility, which has a keyboard as the icon. Open this.... ignore the warnings. Select "Yes" then you are presented with a list of options. The one which worked for me is "auto activate IM with @mark for most locales". You need to reboot your PC/laptop. Then you can go to "Settings" "Typing" and then click on "repeat keys" and "cursor blinking". Both these options have sliders which you can use to speed up and slow the keyboard and key strokes. I tried looking at the Keyboard Documentation..... I didn't understand it, so I hope this answer works for Ubuntu users like me.

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Comments

[ryanpcmcquen]

But that does not allow you to increase the speed, neither do the gsettings commands that used to. Did Gnome remove this?

[Loque]

Have you clicked on Repeat keys? Because a menu appears allowing you to set the speed.

[ryanpcmcquen]

I have it on, I didn't see the hidden menu, I will try tonight. Hopefully it can still be set through gsettings. I wish the Gnome team wouldn't move settings with every release ...

[ryanpcmcquen]

OK, so apparently my gsettings command did successfully set Delay to its lowest setting, and Speed to its highest setting. None the less, the repeat rate is significantly slower than it was in past versions of Gnome. Why enforce these arbitrary restrictions?

[Lucio Paiva]

@Loque I just checked on Ubuntu 17.04 and it is under Settings > Universal Access > Typing > Repeat keys, exactly the same as 16.04. You may want to fix your answer.

[Eric Leschinski]

Yeah Ubuntu added another 300 milliseconds to key delay and slowed down the key repeat by about 30 percent. I fiddled around with the settings, and to make it the same as before, you need roughly 290ms delay and 32 repeats/second to make it same as before. I see the pythonic John Cleesian methodologies are still in full effect.

[Lucio Paiva]

Bad interface change. "Repeat keys" shows just "On". It is more than natural that the user will think that clicking on it will turn it "Off", when in fact it opens a new window! And who would've thought, the configuration we're looking for is right there. Btw, had the same issue with Ubuntu 18.04.

[Timmmm]

Great UI design. Why would you put keyboard settings in Settings->Keyboard? Haha that'd be stupid! We should hide them in accessibility under what looks like a toggle-button but isn't instead... Edit: Speed is backwards? Oh my god someone designed this??

[siikamiika]

This is much better for portable configurations than settings menu, because you can set the exact values instead of blindly adjusting a slider

[Rahul Rajaram]

Thanks! And FWIW, this should work on any OS using Gnome.

[Dan Dascalescu]

Please upvote this bug so the GNOME maintainers understand how unfortunate these design decisions were.

[ATorras]

+1 Lubuntu 18.04.2 uses this method instead. See file ~/.config/autostart/LXinput-setup.desktop

[mathtick]

WHERE IS SETTINGS? It does not exist anymore.

[Admin]

Hi! I followed your steps but still didn't get those sliders you mention.

[Boson Bear]

best solution to my problem, as i'm using a window manger without a desktop environment. this line is very handy.

[Tyler Collier]

Speed now seems the opposite of the answer, as in, the higher the speed, the faster the repeat rate. (3 months ago when I installed on a different machine, speed was indeed backward)

[Boris Verkhovskiy]

@mathtick press the windows key (or the command key if you have a mac keyboard) and type "settings"

[coopbird19]

What units are those numbers? Seem like delay is milliseconds? But repeat-interval seems to be frequency (hz)? A higher number repeats the keypress faster. E.g. A value of 50 is faster than 30.

[patraulea]

Yes, repeat interval is hz and delay is milliseconds.

[blueether]

This is a much better answer