# Keyboard weird letters problem



## anonbsdguy (May 1, 2020)

Hello,

I am not new to the BSD world but i had a problem recently with my keyboard(Hyperx alloy fps pro cherry-mx blue mechanical).
The keys when pressed show weird characters until i have unplugged and replugged the keyboard.
This happens only on FreeBSD-Release-12.1 which i am currently using.
It doesn't happen on arch and solaris that i use.
If anyone has a possible fix for this please help me


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## anonbsdguy (May 1, 2020)

Any help anyone please..


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## George (May 2, 2020)

Is it a usb keyboard? Does this happen in the console, or in X?


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## anonbsdguy (May 2, 2020)

This happens in console in x, everywhere. I have to unplug/replug the keyboard


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## tingo (May 2, 2020)

Does it happen with a different keyboard?


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## George (May 2, 2020)

You could check your `dmesg`.
Do you have anything keyboard related in /boot/loader.conf or /etc/rc.conf?

Early at boot, in the beastie menu, when you chose "Escape to loader prompt", does the keyboard work there properly? Just trying to narrow down the problem. ;D


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## anonbsdguy (May 2, 2020)

fixed it,

added a delay to the keyboard load


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## anonbsdguy (May 3, 2020)

this is how i fixed it

sleep 5 && dbus_enable
sleep 5 && hald_enable


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## SirDice (May 4, 2020)

anonbsdguy said:


> this is how i fixed it
> 
> sleep 5 && dbus_enable
> sleep 5 && hald_enable


That's a syntax error. And I'm not sure where you did this but it's wrong in any case. The contents of rc.conf are NOT commands, they are variables. Nothing more, nothing less.


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## ralphbsz (May 5, 2020)

A: Try it with a normal keyboard. This is a very complex gaming keyboard; it can be programmed, one can download macros to it (which make the OS believe that multiple keys have been pressed when you actually just press one), and it allows changing the LED colors on all keys. It is possible that the programmability feature doesn't work well with FreeBSD. It is also possible that it has been programmed earlier when connected to a different OS, and is doing exactly what it is supposed to.

B: Have you tried it with a different OS on the same hardware? I expect so, and I expect you'll say that it works perfectly.

C: Please show us the USB-related output from dmesg, and the output from usbconfig. We might need more information from some of the usbconfig details, but don't know that yet.

D: Putting sleep statements into rc.conf is, as SirDice says, silly and counter-productive. They just slow things down, but not where you expect it.


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## shkhln (May 5, 2020)

Gaming keyboards are problematic indeed. Some improvement should be expected in the next FreeBSD release:  https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=224592.



anonbsdguy said:


> This happens in console in x



Where exactly?


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## fscorrea (May 5, 2020)

I used once a program alike to converters/showkey. I'm not sure it was this one, for `showkey` is the standard tool to check on Linuxes virtual consoles, and I'm pretty sure whatever was that tool I used its name wasn't the same. Nevertheless, I just found this on Ports. Could be worth a try.



shkhln said:


> Gaming keyboards are problematic indeed.


Never tried one before, good to know. I'll stay away from them as they seem to be expensive and I fail to spot a noticeable just by looking.


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