Keyboard not working correctly in Finder

Hello Everyone,
Lately I have been having a problem where suddenly the letter and number keys stop working in the Finder, but JUST in the Finder. For example, if I make a new folder on the desktop, I cannot rename it, because the letter keys aren't working. I can, however, option-click and drag it to make a copy. I also can ctrl-left click to simulate a right click. All of the function keys (F1-F12) work correctly.
Additionally, the entire keyboard works perfectly in any other program. Right now, as I type, I cannot use these same keys if I clicked into the Finder. A restart alleviates the problem, but only temporarily. It has happened about once a day so far this week, and twice today already. Before this week, it has happened about 3 times, spread out by weeks. Does anyone have any ideas of steps I can take to fix this, or if this sounds familiar to anyone?
I should also mention this is my work computer, and I am on it about 8-10 hours a day.
Thank you in advance for any help or feedback!

reset your finder preferences. delete the file home directory/library/preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. then control-option-click on finder in the dock and choose "relaunch".

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I understand the keyboard is not working correctly. I'll do my best to help, but first I require the following information:
1. The computer's model number. If you require assistance locating this information, please reference this website: Guide to finding your notebook product number
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the behaviour is quite odd.
when i hit ctrl-alt-f1, and switch to the first virtual console, trying to login, or even type doesnt work quite as it should.
example, i try to login: this is what i get:
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password:
when the user name should be eldragon, if i type each letter at a time, until i get it to work, i can type correctly, and its not always the same letters that dont work. of course, the password comes in blank, and sometimes, when i get it all right, i can login, and the effect contiues
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so, what could be wrong with this vc? anyone got a clue? ive searched the wiki, bug reports, google, and the forums (not in this order) for an answer but i came up empty.
PD. if im posting in the wrong forum, please move it where it should go
Last edited by eldragon (2009-03-22 18:08:54)

Hi,
Since the problem is in the vc's, and the keymap is loaded "pre Xorg", I'd start by doing some tests there.
I'm still a learner myself, so this might not work, or it might, either way, you've got nothing to loose
First of all check logs for errors, maybe something pops out.
If no errors on logs, than here's what I would do if I were you:
(backup /etc/rc.conf , /etc/inittab , /etc/locale.gen to some directory)
1. Let's start by isolating the problem by not going to gdm->gnome automatically, so you can test vc's themselfs more efficiently and quicker.
take out gdm from the DAEMONS line in /etc/rc.conf (something like this)
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond alsa hal fam)
2. let your /etc/inittab be like you have in this section (id:3)
## Only one of the following two lines can be uncommented!
# Boot to console
id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
#id:5:initdefault:
and comment everything here:
# Example lines for starting a login manager
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null
3. do you use a non-us keyboard?
check your rc.conf for the 1st lines, mainly your KEYMAP
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="your.timezone.here"
KEYMAP="your.keymap.here"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
confirm that your keymap exists in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps and double confirm the name is right, example:
for US keyboard the file is 'us.map.gz' so KEYMAP="us" (take out .map.gz); in case your keyboard is not US, check the name, as some have more letters than others
(usually /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty unless your pc is not i386 or qwerty ofc )
4. reboot pc.
You'll be in vc/1.
Now, instead of jumping in consoles with ctr-alt-Fx, try jumping just with Alt+Fx. (if it doesn't work, go ctrl+alt+fx ofc)
Do Alt+F2 and start typing as normal, anything and manything at any speed and confirm is good. Don't press enter. Just testing keystrokes.
Do Alt+F3, Alt+F4, Alt+F5 and test the same for each vc.
Now for the final and problematic one, go Alt+F1 and test.
If it's good, then probably your problem is on X/gdm/gnome or anything that is loading after vc, or if you changed your keymap, then that was the faulty thing.
If it's not good, keep on reading
5. don't enter in vc/1, rather jump to vc/2 or 3 or something and enter as root, let's edit your /etc/rc.conf again.
copy to a piece of paper your 1st options in case they are different from below:
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="your.timezone.here"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
basicly is trying to put it to a default state. Put your options just like they are above, except TIMEZONE, you can put yours, I don't remember default one.
Reboot and test again just like in step 4.
If it doesn't work, you might give a look at /etc/locale.gen and just uncomment these 2 lines:
#en_SG.UTF-8 UTF-8
#en_SG ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1
#en_ZA.UTF-8 UTF-8
#en_ZA ISO-8859-1
leave every other line commented. in case you had some of your own uncommented, copy to a paper wich ones were, and comment them.
write in console
locale-gen
let it end generating the locales, reboot, and step 4 again.
6. Still not working, let's try to put things bad proposedly! Change your KEYMAP to another one, if qwerty, just choose another qwerty language, all letters should be on same place, except for punctuation ofc.
Reboot and try again as step 4.
Still not working? Change the LOCALE and keep your wrong qwerty keyboard. (LOCALE will probably change some words, like password to it's LOCALE language, etc).
Reboot and try again as step 4.
Still not working? ok, final attempt, change back your LOCALE and your KEYMAP to the values you had before, the correct ones.
Reboot and try again as step 4.
7. If still not working, well, for now I don't know much more. Take in consideration that the boot process goes through several steps, the error might be in one of those steps. One last thing you can try, altho I think it works just in DE/WM modes, I've read in some posts (here or not, can't remember) that by pressing Ctrl-Alt-K you can change your keyboard layout, assuming you have a second one, and use them for different things, I think the example I read on the post was something like, you wanna code in english but talk in irc in russian for example.
I kinda doubt it works, but if it also activates in vc's mode, then you could have pressed it accidently (like when doing ctrl-alt-fx, your finger slipped ).
press ctrl-alt-k, type a few letters, press ctrl-alt-k again, type more letters, and you'll see if it does something or not.
Again, just try, you got nothing to loose
One thing I noticed, is that when trying to put some characters on vc as username, it acts as delete, some even erase the all line in one go and some don't do nothing, some of the characters were # @ £ §.
8. Since it didn't work, let's put everything as it was.
8.1. go to /etc/inittab and put like this:
(comment id:3, uncomment id:5 // uncomment x:5:...gdm...)
## Only one of the following two lines can be uncommented!
# Boot to console
#id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
id:5:initdefault:
# Example lines for starting a login manager
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null
8.2. edit /etc/rc.conf and DON'T put back the gdm on daemons line.
Alter the 1st lines ranging from LOCALE to USECOLOR to the ones you copied to a paper.
8.3. comment/uncomment the locales on /etc/locale.gen as you have on paper and run in console
locale-gen
8.4. you're set, reboot and you're on gdm->gnome again. (still no vc/1 working tho )
note: in your initial /etc/iniitab you had id:3 uncommented and gdm on daemons, so you would go automatically to gdm as you started your pc, but, what if something happens and you need to go to another mode before gdm runs? you couldn't do it easily with gdm on daemons.
If you put it like I wrote above, when you turn on the pc, it's the same, you go automatically to the gdm, but, in case something happens, you can always go to another mode before gdm runs, by doing the following (read here on wiki or foruns, will put link when I find it)
Pc reboots and you're on GRUB, press 'e', choose the kernel and press 'e' again, go to the end of the line where it says 'ro', and add a 3 to the end, to look like this 'ro 3', press 'b' (boot) and you're on mode 3 without going to gdm
But ofc, this is just a choice, if you prefer to have as you had it, by all means, just put gdm on daemons line, and your /etc/inittab as initially, that's the beauty of Linux, it's to your fit
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