I’m using Maui Linux, KDE Plasma.
An hour ago, while playing a game, my cat jumped up on my desk and started messing with my keyboard. Now the function keys are all messed up, and I can’t figure out what the hell is going on. A few examples:
If I’m in Firefox, F11 is supposed to change the window to full screen. It now opens the find dialogue.
Pressing F3 is supposed to open the find dialogue. It now brings up the open file dialogue.
In Dolphin, selecting a file and pressing F2 is supposed to let me rename it. F2 now opens a new instance of Dolphin. Selecting a file on the desktop and pressing F2 does nothing.
In Dolphin, F4 should open a terminal window. It now does nothing.
Anywhere, F1 should open help. It now does nothing.
And so on.
I’ve spent the last hour Googling and trying to figure this out. I’ve gone into system settings and restored defaults on the keyboard. I’ve triple-checked that the keyboard layout is US, and for my keyboard. I’ve reset the computer twice. Still my function keys are screwed up. Oh, and the print-screen key now opens the print dialogue, it used to open the screen capture program. Everything else appears to be working normally. Like, if I hit ctrl-f the find dialogue opens as it’s supposed to. But if I hit F3 for “find next,” I get the open dialogue.
Does anyone know what the hell is going on here?
What kind of keyboard do you have? Some keyboards have an f-lock key. If you have one, press it.
There is no f-lock key, unless some combination of keys serves that purpose.
For clarification, this keyboard does not have an “fn” key. There is a row of single-purpose keys labelled F1, F2, etc. at the top. I do not need to press down any other keys to access the f(n) functions on this keyboard. Except for the meta keys, the layout is exactly like this.
This is why I’m having a rough time with Google, everything I’m finding assumes I’m talking about an “fn” key.
It is an old keyboard, like 12 or 13 years. My wife is positing that it’s starting to fail, and that the cat just happened to have perfect timing. I’m gonna try finding another keyboard amongst my junk and see if the problem persists.
Aaaaannd… I unplugged it an plugged it back in, and now it works normally. So, new question! What the hell? Why would that work, when rebooting the computer didn’t?
Unplugging the keyboard dropped function lock just as it would drop caps lock. I can’t read your postage stamp pic but somewhere you have a function lock and your cat stepped on it. I did gather that your keyboard is made by Dynex. Here is a manual for a different Dynex keyboard that discusses Function Lock. Since you ignored my question about what kind of keyboard you have that is the best I can do. You will need to find the manual for your particular keyboard and look for Function Lock yourself.
Maybe not rudely ignoring it – many people may not know what ind of keyboard they actually have. A lot of the ‘generic’ keyboards don’t have any brand name on the front. And on the bottom, there may not be anything very obvious, either – just something vague like "Kyoto Manufacturing Co.'.
But it is really frustrating when people want help, but don’t give basic info like the brand of machine, what Operating System they’re running, etc., and then wonder why you can’t give a specific answer. At least, GESancMan came back and told us how he resolved it.
It wouldn’t take long to say he can’t find out what kind of keyboard he has or otherwise acknowledge the question. And I don’t think that he ignored the question out of rudeness. In some way, he just missed it. My hope is that my pointing this out will help him see that. If he improves at responding to questions the help he gets will also improve. I will also mention the the tiny pic he provided shows a Dynex logo on the front. While it’s not a super gamer keyboard, it is also not a no-name keyboard and the model number is probably available.
