Keys malfunctioning - ctrl and shift seem to be pressed when they aren't, or don't work when pressed

Solution 1:

I've the same problem on HP Pavilion 15 ab062nl. CPU AMD A10 8700p, GPU radeon r6 + radeon r7 m360, RAM: 8GB DDR3.

Try pressing only Left_SHIFT Key. On my notebook this fixes the problem for a while

problem with SHIFT, CTRL and ALT button with integrated keyboard

I've also opened a bug on launchpad

You can add yourself as affected or create a new bug if you think yours is different.

In my opinion it's a problem of compatibility with these HP Keyboards.

Solution 2:

Ok, so after some time of testing and with the help of @Dea1993 and the guys on the Launchpad bug thread. This is how I fix it.

1. Edit the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT on /etc/default/grub to:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i8042.dumbkbd=1"
   

2. Update grub:

   $ sudo update-grub
   

3. Reboot

Although this causes the CAPS LOCK keyboard led not to blink (but this is, in fact, the expected behavior).

For the record, these are the options I found regarding the i8042 controller:

• i8042.direct - Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
• i8042.dumbkbd - Pretend that controller can only read data from keyboard and cannot control its state (Don't attempt to blink the leds)
• i8042.noaux - Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
• i8042.nokbd - Don't check/create keyboard port
• i8042.noloop - Disable the AUX Loopback command while probing for the AUX port
• i8042.nomux - Don't check presence of an active multiplexing controller
• i8042.nopnp - Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX controllers
• i8042.reset - Reset the controller during init and cleanup
• i8042.unlock - Unlock (ignore) the keylock

Solution 3:

i've finally solved the problem updating BIOS

Solution 4:

Does it happen with Unity as the DE?

Do you have a wireless mouse plugged in that is sending phantom signals to take over your computer? I had a similar experience, and it turned out my mouse button was being held down in my bag. Like you said, it was like some strange Sticky Keys situation. When I unplugged the wireless mouse dongle the problem went away.