Keyboard repeat randomly stops working until reboot. Works fine in a VM session in VMWare Player.

Does the keyboard work ok in a liveCD rather than the installed OS?
Are you fully updated?
Are there any bugs reported?
Does it do the same with a USB keyboard?

I worked fine, and still works fine after a reboot. Something is happening during use that is breaking it. I did make some keyboard shorcuts to switch between workspaces (Ctrl-1,2,3,4).

I've been updating, I just checked this AM and a few more are being installed.

I searched, couldn't find any hits about repeat rate failing (everything else works OK with the KB, and it repeats still in a VM session so I assume it's not hardware).

It's a Laptop so I haven't tested that, but I can plug one in the next time it happens if it'll help with diagnostics.

I was hoping someone could tell me how to reset the keyboard or a log file I could look in for an error message that might be useful for searching.

Does it work ok with older releases?

Yes, as noted above, I never had this problem with v10 up to 11.04.

I actually formatted and reinstalled 11.10 from scratch (fresh install).

I see similar behavior on my Dell Latitude 66410. I also have VMWare installed. After searching the web for a bit I have found this post: http://askubuntu.com/questions/67973/repeated-keystrokes-lost-in-unity.

Once key repeat stops working, I am actually able to "reset" key repetition by going to Universal Access -> Typing -> Keyboard settings and slightly adjusting dial / scroll widget that controls Delay for "Key presses repeat when key is held down". Key repeat starts working again.

I have the same problem: repeat keys stops working every few minutes and gets back every time when first uncheck "Repeat Keys" box and then recheck it from "System Settings -> Keyboard -> Typing".

Repeat Keys doesn't work in any program inside Ubuntu but works just fine in VMware Workstation 7.1.5 virtual machines

I did upgrade from 11.04 and had now problems before that.

This upgrade did not go very smoothly anyways: on first boot I didn't get any menus or launchpad and I still haven't had luck to get sounds working.

My hardware is Asus P6T mainboard with i7 core and external ATI Radeon HD 3580 and FGLRX drivers installed

Identical problem here running VMware 7.1.4 on an HP Z200 desktop.

Repeat never fails in my W7 client.

Works again in 11.10 host after toggling the "Key presses repeat when key is held down" checkbox in the Keyboard settings.

I also did an upgrade from 11.04.

Well, the problem finally returned and I tried the workaround which did enable repeat again. Still not sure why it's happening to begin with. Thanks for the advice.

Same issue here.

Ubuntu 11.10 x64 from scratch, full updated.

Randomly "repeated key" stops working. I have a desktop pc. Isn't it a bug?

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Needs information' state without activity for the last 15 days.

I also see this issue a couple of times a day on my work PC and it's really annoying. Unticking and reticking the "Key presses repeat when key is held down" in System Settings / Keyboard fixes the problem, even without closing the dialog. When keyboard repeat is broken, it still works inside my VMware VMs. I have VMware Workstation 8 and Ubuntu 11.10 x64 with all the updates. The PC is a Core i7 960 on an Intel motherboard with 12GB of RAM and a USB Das Keyboard. My installation was an 'update' install (zap / but keep /home) rather than an 'upgrade' as I was on 10.10 before. The issue normally comes to light while using Gnome Terminal or Geany but then those are the only two programs I use where I regularly rely on key repeats.

I never see this issue on my laptop which also runs 11.10, but runs the 32-bit version and doesn't have VMware Workstation installed.

I am in the exact same position as thjpster though with less memory and processor. I have replicated the problem on another machine but only after installing WMWare workstation 8. I have not tried it with version 7x to see if it is version specific.

Keyboard settings is open all the time as unticking/ticking immediately resets it to desired behaviour.

Yes, this happens with version 7x of VMWare Workstation as well. This is happening on a laptop with and without a USB keyboard attached. I'm using nouveau drivers and unity 2d so that rules out a slew of possible causes (proprietary drivers, compiz issues, etc). I have to reset my keyboard repeat dozens of times per day.

To recreate the issue move your mouse very quickly in and back out of the VM (between a host window and the guest screen). Afterward the keyboard (usually) won't repeat. I haven't been able to pin it on a number of times that you move in and out but waving the mouse quickly in and out of the VM window will turn off keyboard repeat >30% of the time for me.

Can anyone else confirm this method of recreating the problem? Is there any specific package or library that may be involved in this transition?

Yes, this does recreate it for me 100% of the time, I sometimes have to click in the vm window but within 10 seconds of moving the mouse key repeat stops working. Click off then click on and we are back to normal.

I am pretty green with linux so can't help any more than that I am afraid.

Same problem here. I run Windows and FreeBSD VMs in VMWare Workstation 8 under Ubuntu 11.10. Did not see the behavior with 11.4. Someone please file a bug!

You can report one yourself. You can start the process by running:

ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-input-keyboard

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-keyboard/+filebug/ba9e6cda-1085-11e1-b66c-0025b3df357a?

Will add details as soon as it's done processing.

Sorry, try this instead:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-keyboard/+bug/891295

Also hitting this issue, added a count to related bug 891295. I am also using VMWare workstation (that works fine regarding this matter) most of the time to run a WinXP Corporate machine with some corporate tools (Office, VPN etc).
From the reading, it seems that VMWare is always mentioned in the reports. Therefore I am wondering if there also someone on earth experiencing this problem WITHOUT using VMWare tools.

In other words, I am wondering if the problem could be due to a bad integration between VMWare and Unity or Ubunutu 11.10. Could it ever make sense?
FYI, my WMWare version is 8.0.1 build-528992 ( pretty recent at time of writing)

ditto here, vmware workstation 7.5. issued started when I installed (clean) 11.10 on release day. vmware was also setup that day. been dealing with it until now, did not know unchecking and rechecking "system settings --> keyboard --> key presses repeat when key is held down" would fix. just did that, working fine right now.