Ubuntu – Uncheck caps lock crashes Ubuntu installation

capslockkeyboard

I just got a new Razer Blade Stealth and I immediately proceeded to installing ubuntu on my laptop and erasing windows. What happened was that during installation, whenever I uncheck the caps lock on my keyboard, the computer crashes (the screen becomes fragmented? into gibberish).

Now I've finished installing it.. it is still crashing whenever I uncheck the caps lock.

Best Answer

I have the "new" 2016 razer blade stealth; upgraded to Ubuntu 16.10. I had the same problems with the caps lock key crashing.

Workaround: Disable Caps Lock

Obviously this completely disables the caps lock key, but it also prevents it from crashing the system.

Ubuntu

Go to Tweak tool -> typing -> caps lock key behavior, change to "Caps Lock is disabled".

Kubuntu

Go to System Settings -> Hardware -> Input Devices -> Keyboard -> Advanced, in the section Caps Lock key behavior enable Caps Lock is disabled.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Caps Lock delay

Learn to use Shift instead, that is the common way to enter a capital letter.

If you want to hit Caps Lock anyway to produce a capital letter, do note that there are reports that the delay is a known issue ((Launchpad Bug #1376903). The Arch Linux wiki describes a method to remove this delay which seems to work.

For your convenience, this script performs the manual steps documented at that wiki page:

#!/bin/sh
xkbcomp -xkb "$DISPLAY" - | sed 's#key <CAPS>.*#key <CAPS> {\
    repeat=no,\
    type[group1]="ALPHABETIC",\
    symbols[group1]=[ Caps_Lock, Caps_Lock],\
    actions[group1]=[ LockMods(modifiers=Lock),\
    Private(type=3,data[0]=1,data[1]=3,data[2]=3)]\
};\
#' | xkbcomp -w 0 - "$DISPLAY"

This needs to be started as part of your desktop session (do not use Upstart for example). See this post for a method, do not forget to enable the execute bit of the script.

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 14.04.2 cryptsetup failed on boot

Unfortunately, the keyboard layout DOES matter. :(

On bootup, you start with the US Keyboard layout. As your filesystem is decrypted (entering the correct password), any settings changing keyboard layout (such as you changing it to Swedish Keyboard Layout) will be applied.

What I suggest is the following:

Do a fresh install again. (sorry)
When installing Ubuntu, just leave the keyboard layout alone (leave it to US).
AFTER successfully installing Ubuntu and decrypting your filesystem on the first boot, THEN you can change the keyboard layout.

See this Unix Stack Exchange post for more details.