Shortcut key gone crazy

[kenax]

hi, i'm a computer geek on Windows and mac and have recently delved into linux. rather enjoying it but sometimes run into bizarre glitches.

my latest is i wanted to create a shortcut key for screenshot. found it under preferences > keyboard, saw Print was the default key, Prt Sc didn’t seem to work on the keyboard, so I double clicked on the Print button and the whole system went berzerk, opening up new window after new window asking me if i want to save the screenshot or copy it to the clipboard. the screen has become quite dark and i can barely see anything. i press esc in rapid succession but more of the same windows keep popping up. i can see them littering the system tray, until eventually i guess the system is overloaded and the screen turns black!
so i press a long time on the power button for a hard reset, log back in, but it keeps doing the same!! even tried as an experiment to login as "software rendering". I have linux mint 18 (which is supposed to be based on ubuntu 10.4 I believe). 

based on some articles i tried the system monitor to right click on the gnome screenshot process, because i saw that it was quickly multiplying, but before i could press kill process the screenshot window popped up and got in my way. same thing when i tried ctrl+alt+t to open up the terminal and quickly type xkill. the screenshot window would pop up in my way before i had a chance to press the last l.

this happened to the admin account, and later to a regular user account. I have been using the guest account but that does not allow me to install anything, such as dconf.
Fortunately I have a live usb using gparted and can boot into that, which has dconf, but when I run that it seems to only affect the usb linux os. Any way to cd my way to the admin folder to run it there, or how can I go about it?

I did a search for *keybind* in the linux os folder but could not find a file which I could try to edit and fix the problem. I remember when I double click on the Print button it changed the Print to something like o2xx, cant remember exactly.
When in the guest account and open up a text editor the cursor blinks fine, so I imagine the keyboard is not stuck and repeating.
When I manage to open up the terminal window while in the admin account, it seems to repeat the string ^@ (if I remember correctly) in the same repetitions of about twice a second.

Thank you for your help

[AZgl1800]

my solution, which actually works better, is to right click on Screenshot, and attach it to the Panel.

the reason this is better, many times, touching any key on the keyboard will cause the display to change and you will loose "that error message" or whatever....

so, I gave up on the shortcut keys and now just use the icon on the Panel, works every time.

[kenax]

the reason i like to use a shortcut key is because sometimes i want to include in the screenshot a popup window which appears only if i hold the mouse over a certain object. in any case, i can't even get in to make any changes, any suggestions how i can accomplish this?

[MrEen]

Because you mentioned "^@", see if this thread helps you: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=263923

[kenax]

checked out the page and it seems the following command seemed to work for him:

rmmod peaq_wmi
rmmod input_polldev

but how can i type this into the terminal if it keeps adding the ^@ string? possible to run such a command in that user account while in live usb?

[MrEen]

After Ctrl-Alt-F2 he didn't get the repeating until he logged in, I believe.

[kenax]

so i ctrl alt f2 before i log in? i'm a bit surprised there is no safe login mode like in windows. i guess i should be working out of a regular user account and not the admin account, to avoid problems like this, and have some sort of handy backup on external drive/flash or something

then again, how am i supposed to resolve this problem without logging in? i don't get the repeating thing before i login, only shortly afterwards

[MrEen]

I had some trouble following exactly what was going on in that thread, and some stuff in the resolution (like the OP mentions the bug is fixed in the latest kernel, but is that the latest available to us, or the latest from kernel.org?) Was just hoping whatever the case, it might help you.

[smurphos]

the reason i like to use a shortcut key is because sometimes i want to include in the screenshot a popup window which appears only if i hold the mouse over a certain object. in any case, i can't even get in to make any changes, any suggestions how i can accomplish this?

If you launch the screenshot app from a menu/panel/desktop launcher it doesn't take the screenshot straight away - it has several user configurable options including delay the taking of the screenshot to allow you time to set up your screenshot.

[FreedomTruth]

If indeed this is the same peaq-wmi problem... you can try this:
boot the linux mint install usb
mount your installed mint
edit the file etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (in the mounted folder, not the "live" folder)
add these lines (not sure if both are needed or only the 1st):

Code: Select all

blacklist peaq_wmi
blacklist input_polldev

save it, reboot into your normal mint and see if the ^@ goes away (and screenshot too?).

[kenax]

my goodness i figured it out. i was about to give up and reinstall, but just started doing random things out of desperation and found that when i logged into the account and just held down the shift or ctrl key, it stopped the bezerk. i was able to close the windows popping up and go to the Menu to the Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, basically back to the beginning where this problem started. I noticed that the Print shortcut key had been replaced with 0xdd, whatever that's supposed to mean. so i double clicked on this again and for a brief moment it allowed me to replace it with something else. i pounded the keyboard like a madman but i got a popup window saying i cannot use "s" because then i wouldn't be able to type, suggesting i use use also some other key, like alt. so i tried again but this time managed to squeeze in the Windows key on the keyboard in combination with Z. now the shortcut key shows as Super0xdd (whatever that is supposed to mean). Anyway, maybe that will be my new shortcut key for PrintScreen and a very very convoluted method how I achieved it, but at least i'm back in and thanks for all your input!