backslash (solved)

[billybangleballs]

I have a 105 key generic keyboard that works fine with both windows and linux.
But on raspberry pi the backslash key between shift and Z is ignored.
I have tried all the variations afforded by raspi-config and still no backslash.
Running showkey proves that every key on the keyboard works, except backslash.
If I plug the keyboard into another computer, I can type backslashes to my hearts content, but not alas on a raspberry pi. I've tried two different raspberry pi boards and both are identical in their utter rejection of the backslash key. \\\\\\\\\\\\\.

I'm running the very latest raspbian image.
Linux raspberrypi 3.2.27+ #260 PREEMPT Thu Nov 8 00:34:12 GMT 2012 armv6l GNU/Linux
Raspberry Pi reference 2012-09-18 (armhf)
Generated using spindle, http://asbradbury.org/projects/spindle/, c580bef, stage4-lxde-edu.qed
and my favourite colour is tartan.

Can anyone help?

[jojopi]

Can you confirm that you are using "showkey" on console, not in X, and not "showkey -a"?

The key between shift and Z should produce keycode 86. If not, what does it do in "showkey -s", and does "dmesg" show any keyboard related errors afterwards?

[billybangleballs]

Hi,
I'm using showkey in the console, (it doesn't run under X, gives:"Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console")
I've tried showkey -a, showkey -s and showkey -k, all of which show a result for every key on the keyboard, bar the backslash key.
Also dmesg doesn't mention the keyboard again after its original detection or any other message that is keyboard/keymap related.

Code: Select all

[    3.442211] usb 1-1.3.1.1: new low-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
[    3.556465] usb 1-1.3.1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=13ba, idProduct=0017
[    3.570430] usb 1-1.3.1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[    3.578690] usb 1-1.3.1.1: Product: Generic USB K/B
[    3.595601] input: Generic USB K/B as /devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.1/1-1.3.1.1/1-1.3.1.1:1.0/input/input0
[    3.604361] generic-usb 0003:13BA:0017.0001: input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Generic USB K/B] on usb-bcm2708_usb-1.3.1.1/input0
[    3.627065] input: Generic USB K/B as /devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.1/1-1.3.1.1/1-1.3.1.1:1.1/input/input1
[    3.641158] generic-usb 0003:13BA:0017.0002: input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Generic USB K/B] on usb-bcm2708_usb-1.3.1.1/input1
[    3.659710] udevd[137]: starting version 175

I can fudge a backslash by using alt-gr + - but it is a bit of a pain, backslash and pipe are used quite a lot and shouldn't be a 3 key combination.

[billybangleballs]

Just an afterthought, but could it be due to the mouse/keyboard combiner that I'm using? It comprises of two ps/2 sockets, a large plastic blob and a usb plug.
It might only speak Chinese and doesn't know about backslashes.

[Burngate]

I've just spent half an hour looking, and got nowhere!
BUT
Is it possible that it's been assigned as a 'dead' key? That is, it gives nothing on its own but adds a diacritic to the next letter typed.
Can't see how, but it's worth thinking about.

[billybangleballs]

This is the thing I was meaning, could it be the electronics hidden in the big blob of plastic that's messing the job up?

This thing.

usb2ps2.PNG (23.6 KiB) Viewed 3909 times

Is it possible that it's been assigned as a 'dead' key? That is, it gives nothing on its own but adds a diacritic to the next letter typed.

Surely it would still have a scancode? If I do ALT+1 3 2, I get "ä" but I get loads of scancodes in showkey before the one solitary letter pops up.

[jojopi]

Yes, it is the converter. See: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 604#p46604

104 key layouts such as US do not have the extra key left of Z, so it may not be programmed for it. PS/2 and USB keyboards use different hardware key codes, so it cannot pass a keystroke through at all unless it knows what to translate it to.

[billybangleballs]

Yes, it is the converter. See: viewtopic.php?p=46604#p46604

Thanks for that, another mystery solved.

[T-101]

Did you need a better PSU?

[billybangleballs]

Did you need a better PSU?

I'm going to try that next.