Some random keys don't work

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my new FreeDOS Laptop (Lenovo z50). After installation I did a full Software Update with 'Software Updater' und restarted the laptop. Right now I'm installing drivers for my graphic card.

But since I installed Ubuntu some of my keys don't work, for example the Backspace Key, t, and the capslock-key. How do I fix this ? I did try an USB-keyboard and there are no problems ... just the laptop keys seem to have this problem.

Solution 1

This happened to me on Ubuntu 20.10 using latest kernel 5.8
Lenovo Ideapad keyboard

Important: previously I had set a keyboard key activated by AltGr (right Alt) + another key. Apparently, AltGr brings all kinds of weird characters, avoid using it.

Two possible solutions for it:

1. Go into Accessibility Options, enable and disable Sticky Keys.
   This brought my "s" key back, but the problem came back after a while.

2. Go and edit that keyboard hotkey you added before, use anything else other than AltGr (never use this key) In this case, I re-assigned the same hotkey to RightShift+Keypad8
   After doing this, my "s" "-" and "+" keys were back.
   In your specific case there, as it is a fresh install, try manually reseting all keyboard hotkeys, or change them to something else as a test.

3. If none of this works, use terminal command xev and see what happens when you press a key that works, and see what happens when you press the problematic key.
   If the problematic key causes a two-line array full of 0 0 0 0 0 0 (zeros) to appear, then it is being treated as function key for whatever reason.

I've noticed that right when I boot into Linux and I press the Fn keys on my laptop there's a message that appears saying "Sticky Keys Enabled". I'm not sure if that's the correct functionality of it. Might be a bug.

Solution 2

I had the same problem, but I solved it by myself:

• go to System Setting -> Keyboard -> Text entry
  there choose: "use the same source for all windows"

Comments

[Private]

please see this answer and try out : askubuntu.com/questions/360696/…

[marko]

I tried the Language Support as described but it didn't work

[Rmano]

Have you excluded a hardware problem? Do they work if you start in FreeDOS?

[MikeSchneeberger]

The same happened to me a couple weeks ago with a Lenovo P50. Could not find a solution. Now, I'm using an external keyboard instead.

[David Foerster]

This would be better as a comment since it only solves an adjacent problem, but I won't flag it for deletion because of the image and nice formatting.

[Eduard Sukharev]

omg, I'm struggling with my Lenovo ThinkBook right now and i'm missing ctrl, shift, tab, backspace, "T", "S" and "Y". I 'm no sure wha's causing it. how do i fix this? I've disabled AltGr via sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration but it doesn't seem to help me.

[Winampah]

For me, the only step necessary to have my keyboard functioning again was go to into the Accessibility menu and enabling/disabling Sticky Keys (or disabling/enabling, whichever order)