CentOS 5 Takes One Second Holding Each Keyboard Key Until It Shows.

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I used CentOS 5 for years. Suddenly, it takes one second holding a keyboard key until it shows on the screen:

# uname -a Linux nitrogen 2.6.18-371.11.1.el5PAE #1 SMP Wed Jul 23 15:54:19 EDT
2014 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
# xset -q Keyboard Control:
auto repeat: off key click percent: 50 LED mask: 00000000
auto repeat delay: 660 repeat rate: 25
auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
fadfffdfffdfe5ef
ffffffffffffffff
ffffffffffffffff
bell percent: 100 bell pitch: 800 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
acceleration: 20/10 threshold: 2
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
unix/:7100,built-ins Bug Mode: compatibility mode is enabled DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 0 Suspend: 1800 Off: 1800
DPMS is Enabled
Monitor is On Font cache:
Server does not have the FontCache Extension File paths:
Config file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Modules path: /usr/lib/xorg/modules
Log file: /var/log/Xorg.0.log

I copied the CentOS 5 /etc/X11/xorg.conf to CentOS 7 (on the same computer) and rebooted – no effect. I copied the CentOS 7 /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf to CentOS 5 and rebooted – no effect. I tried different CentOS 5 xset settings, I tried an IBM Soft Touch and a Logitech keyboard using different cabeling.

What might resolve this new one second delay for each CentOS 5 keyboard key? What might have caused it?

ThanX

7 thoughts on - CentOS 5 Takes One Second Holding Each Keyboard Key Until It Shows.

  • Did you change or update any hardware recently? This might be a bit far-fetched, but I observed behaviour like this when connecting a new monitor to a machine running CentOS5 through DVI. I don’t recall the details, but the monitor created some kind of interrupt issue that the CentOS5 kernel (5.4 – 2.6.18-164.15.1.el5) couldn’t handle. Symptoms were slow-responding keyboard and jerky mouse.

    If it’s something like this, you should see it in the logs.

  • Is this system accessible via SSH?
    Does the behavior only happen when using the physical keyboard?

    Might it be out of physical memory (RAM) and swapping violently?
    Disk thrashing of this sort can cause rather irritating delays.

    Or maybe a failing or failed drive? (Assuming you could have a hardware or software RAID setup).

  • Does CentOS now only support user request tracking by email? I cannot find this thread on the CentOS web site…

    My computer has 4 GB Patriot memory – the maximum amount the motherboard allows. Using command “top” shows less than one percent of CPU and memory are in use. The computer is idle. I am using a 1 TB WD disk for CentOS 5 and a 2 TB Seagate disk for CentOS 7. No RAID.

    On CentOS 5, I use command “su” to show a root shell. On CentOS 7, su no longer works and I use “ssh root@localhost” instead. (I have not tried SSH to access my CentOS systems remotely yet.)

    Concerning a previous comment: I did not modify the hardware likely causing this problem. I only have to switch between both disks –
    described above – to boot CentOS 5 or CentOS 7. My suspicion is “yum update” using numerous official and unofficial “repos” installed something causing this challenge. The login screen of CentOS 5 for user name and password still works fine. By the way, we develop software
    (NMRanalyst) and I try to keep a CentOS 5 system alive so we can test on it to claim our software is supported on it. When I don’t get further suggestions, I likely re-install another disk with CentOS 5 – this time using only official repos.

    ThanX for all suggestions!

  • I believe, [on CentOS 7] the user should be in the wheel group to successfully use su command (when he gives root password to the contrary to sudo command when one gives one’s own password)

    I hope, this helps.

    Valeri

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    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
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