Bug 1299130

Description of problem:

A string of spurious characters, beginning with a digit 6 and continuing with an unending stream of digit-8 characters, suddenly appears and fills whatever text workspace, dialog box, etc. currently has the focus. If the application has the focus, these spurious characters act like keystrokes attempting to initiate a keyboard-triggered menu command or other command.

Sometimes the string consists of digits 5. This can cause a problem with applications like Thunderbird, which uses digit 5 as a command to toggle the "can wait" flag on a piece of e-mail.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

4.2.6-201.fc22.x86_64


How reproducible:

Happens at random during a session with any application putting a focus on a particular text working area or other area sensitive to keystrokes of any kind.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Start a browser, a word processor, a text editor, or any other application having a text working area of any kind.

2. Place the focus on a particular text working area. For safety's sake, do this in an empty document in a plain-text editor, like KWrite.

3. Watch and wait. (Although sometimes spurious characters will appear as you type!)

Actual results:

Without your typing anything, the machine will start with a digit 6 and then continue with an unbreaking string of 8's. The only way to break it is with another keystroke of your own. After that you have to erase the spurious characters.

Sometimes the machine will throw a number "68" into your text as you are typing. This leaves you with a typographical error you must correct. And it can salt your text with typographical errors requiring as much time to remove as it took to type the text to begin with!

Expected results:

No character, of any description, should appear without your striking a key.

Additional info:

This error has occurred before. It crops up on occasion with a kernel update and vanishes one or at most two updates later. Everyone knows about it. Before now, it was a Plague of Fives. Now it is a Plague of Eights.

A spurious number 68 introduced itself into my text as I was typing this report.

The nature of the error, and its apparent dependency on versions of the kernel, should preclude any consideration of a hardware fault like "sticking keys."