Bug#389064: linux-image-2.6.17-2-k7: Sporadic Keyboard Freezes for some applications
Package: linux-image-2.6.17-2-k7
Severity: important
The only reason that I submitted this bug under this package is because
upgrading from 2.6.15 to 2.6.17 seems to cause this bug; I don't
remember any instances of it when I was using 2.6.15, but since I've
upgraded to 2.6.17 two days ago I've experienced many instances of
this bug. I've also verified this bug on two computers with widely different
hardware (except for the processor, which are both K7s). The reason that
I only upgraded to 2.6.17 two days ago on this computer is because I
have to use a hacked debian kernel (I need a PowerNow! hack that, of course,
requires custom coding and compilation, so I'm usually too lazy to upgrade it),
but the other computer that I've verified this bug on uses the pre-compiled
kernel package, so I don't think the hack has anything to do with it.
Basically, there are times when suddenly I can no longer type into
some applications. I use KDE primarily, but I have also tried XFCE, and
interestingly enough they are subtly different. With KDE (running an KDE
app, in this case KVIrc), the app will just ignore (freeze) all keyboard
input suddenly. With XFCE (running the same KDE app), the app will
usually just temporarily freeze keyboard input for a few seconds, and then
allow input, though there are rare times when even under XFCE the keyboard
input is completely frozen. In such cases the only way to make the app
accept keyboard input again is to restart the app.
This seems to happen in many apps (and since I use KDE apps
almost exclusively...). The apps I know of that commonly exhibit
this bug (and are basically the only ones requiring lots of user input
that I use), is Yakuake and KVIrc. I end up having to restart Yakuake
more than 10 times over the course of a day (using F12 a lot seems to
trigger the bug in many cases, but the bug will NOT appear if the
only thing you do is open Yakuake and press F12 repeatedly, you have
to actually use Yakuake for a while; same goes for other apps).
While this bug is probably going to be very hard to actually fix
(since even after so many encounters with the bug I still can't figure
out exactly what triggers it), it is a VERY incovenient bug that may
even result in data loss.
Thanks.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (990, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
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