Version: (using KDE KDE 3.5.0) Installed from: Debian testing/unstable Packages Hi, When you hold down the shift key for 8 seconds, a dialog pops up, titled "Warning - KDE Accessibility Tool", asking about "Slow keys". This dialog is poorly designed IMHO. It appears to ask two questions at the same time: 1) Do you really want to activate "Slow keys"? 2) How should KDE behave in future when you hold down shift for 8 seconds? The title is confusing. 1) is a yes/no question, and there are yes/no buttons at the bottom of the dialog. 2) is a multiple choice question, and there are options in a dropdown. So, personally I don't want to activate slow keys, and in future I'd like KDE to simply not pop up a dialog when I hold down shift for a while. So what do I click or press? Well, I probably want to deactivate all such accessibility enhancements, because I don't have any disabilities, so "Deactivate All AccessX Features & Gestures" looks like the right choice, but it's worded badly: When a gesture was used: Deactivate All AccessX Features & Gestures I don't want to disable stuff "when a gesture was used". I want to disable them all *right now*. And then I'm left wondering...does my yes/no answer relate to the question "Do you really want to activate Slow Keys?" or to the dropdown, or both? If I answer "Cancel", will that save/honour my dropdown choice but not enable Slow Keys? What I really want is a dialog something like this: <Title "Activate 'Slow keys'?"> <move existing paragraph about gestures up to here, but make "KDE Control Centre" a link to the Accessibility panel, if that's possible> Do you really want to activate "Slow keys"? O yes [default] O no Next time I use an accessibility gesture: O show this dialog again [default] O activate the accessibility feature without asking O ignore the gesture <Apply> <Cancel> To configure other accessibility features, visit the accessibility panel in the KDE control centre. [another link to there] Just my $0.02. Note: I'm using 3.5.0 from pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org, which is probably more recent than testing/unstable, which is what I said in the dropdown. Another note: this is a slightly edited version of Debian bug 321108 (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=321108), but IME the Debian KDE maintainers never push the bugs through to you guys or even respond to the bugs, and nowadays I have a KDE bugtracker login. Zak
This feature has been a showstopper for two people for whom I've installed KDE systems, and I've only just worked out what the problem was today. I had never heard of slow keys, and neither had the two users in question. They both simply made a wrong choice made in response to an unexpected and poorly designed popup, and their keyboards effectively ceased to work forever (as far as they could see). Leaning on what we all consider to be 'safe' keys - shift, control, etc - is obviously not a rare event. To get the first user's system working again, I ended up mv'ing her ~/.kde directory so her environment would start with a clean slate. Fortunately for the second user I worked out the origin of the problem before I resorted to such drastic action again. I agree with a re-wording of the pop-up along the lines Zak suggests, but I would advise that the defaults should be *not* to switch on slow keys, and to *ignore* keyboard gestures in future. If my experience is anything to go by, the majority of people who happen upon these activation features will not need the accessibility features offered and will not even know what they are. Those who do need them can positively choose to enable them. Seems a fair and pragmatic way round, and one which will prevent frustration for many users in future. Cheers, Trevor
this bug is still in KDE4, it is just a phrasing problem really. also, by default the "show confirmation dialog whenever a keyboard accessibility feature is turned on or off" should definitely be enabled. i'm not sure what the default setting is for sure, but mine was off though on kubuntu 8.10 and led to me and others wasting time not knowing why our keyboards stopped working in kde4! see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6181997#post6181997
I was just bitten by this bug, wasted a couple of hours trying to get my keyboard to work again. I must have enabled "slow keys" by accident, but I didn't notice anything at the time, but next time I logged in my keyboard appeared not to work.
*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***
The enable slow keys dialogue is especially annoying for me as a gimp user who holds down the shift key fairly often. The dialogue should be disabled by default. The dialogue's default answer should be "no". Furthermore the machine is virtually locked up if the screen saver starts while slow keys is enabled. In this case it's impossible to enter one's password. The slow keys feature should be automatically disabled when the screen gets locked. Hint for fellow sufferers: One can disable slow keys: Configure Desktop -> Accessibility -> Keyboard Filters -> check and uncheck "Use slow keys" One can also disable the dialogue: Configure Desktop -> Accessibility -> Activation Gestures -> uncheck "Use gestures for activating..." Test system: # /etc/SuSE-release openSUSE 11.1 (i586) # uname -a Linux linux-ijef 2.6.25.18-0.2-default #1 SMP 2008-10-21 16:30:26 +0200 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux # rpm -qa kdebase4 kdebase4-4.1.3-3.7
*** Bug 174273 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Hello! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this project has been unmaintained for many years so I am closing this bug. Kcontrol has been replaced by System Settings in Plasma. Please give the latest version of that a try, and open a new bug in "systemsettings" if you continue to have an issue. Thank you!