[NTLUG:Discuss] No keyboard repeating in X

[Steve Baker]

Juliet Blosser wrote:
> 
> I'm having a bit of a problem with my X configuration, and I
> haven't been able to figure it out from the man pages, though
> I'll admit I haven't looked much farther.  The problem is that
> the keyboard doesn't repeat if I hold down a key.  I have to
> tap the key repeatedly if I want a keystroke to occur multiple
> times.  This only happens in X, not in the consoles.  Anyone
> know what my problem is?  I'm running the latest stable Debian,
> and X 3.3.5 (SVGA Server) from the unstable branch of Debian.

Well, I don't know how it got to be that way, but the 'official'
way to turn key repeat on and off (and change the initial delay
and subsequent rate) is the 'xset' command:

  xset r on           -- Turn on key repeat.
  xset r off          -- Turn it off again.

The man page says that with some X servers you can turn the
repeat on or off for each key (!).

There is also a section in the XF86config file (/etc/X11/XF86config
on my machine) which allows you to set that up.

Look for the section starting:

 Section "Keyboard"

Then there should be an uncommented line that says something
like:

   AutoRepeat 500 5

It may be either that this line is commented out for some
reason - or there is an 'xset' command somewhere in your
login scripts (or the system provided ones).

--
Steve Baker                (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
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