(SOLVED) KSP1.4.3 Linux x64 Keyboard "letter" keys not working

[micha]

ANSWER: Ensure Keyboard Layout matches your physical keyboard from KSP1.4 onwards (ie, 101-key, 105-key, etc)

UPDATED ANSWER: Ensure you only have a single keyboard layout available!

Having multiple layouts (eg, to switch between different languages) breaks KSP1.4 onwards.

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So I re-downloaded a brand-new fresh install of KSP 1.4.3 for Linux using Steam. No changes to settings, no mods. Double checked and the keyboard layout matches my OS layout; changing this has no effect. No errors in the log file.

Debian GNU/Linux 9 with KDE desktop.

Launch the game, start a new stock game, create the first basic rocket, launch it, and in flight-mode, none of the standard keyboard keys (ie, letters) work. Ditto in the Editor; none of the "letter" shortcut keys work.

The number keys and the control keys DO work (Shift/Ctrl to adjust throttle, R-Shift F12 to open Debug menu, ESC to pause, etc).

In other parts of the game, the keyboard works normally:

• Settings - keyboard configuration; I can change the bindings (eg, Full-throttle from Z to F)
• VAB - naming a ship; I can type in a new name.
• Debug menu (in flight mode); I can type into the log input box.

So it looks like something is blocking the controls in flight mode/VAB/etc.  And no, there's no input locks active. KSP1.3.1 works fine.

Any ideas?

Edited June 18, 2018 by micha
Add answer and marked "Solved"

[micha]

...so I'm literally the only one with this issue?  I'm just on stock Debian 9 (effectively Ubuntu 17.10) with a fresh clean install using Steam. Older versions of KSP (pre-1.4) work flawlessly on this setup.

The game also runs fine under Windows (same hardware).

Edited June 16, 2018 by micha
Added Windows

[Pand5461]

Have OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with Cinnamon. Had letter keys not working once, everything went back to normal after a game restart.

[micha]

Ok, slightly more information: It seems to be related to KDE.  Keyboard works fine if I use WindowMaker (but that has all sorts of other issues).

I've gone through all the settings and can't find anything which might be the cause of this issue. All other software (including older versions of KSP) work just fine. Typing into a text input box (eg, VAB or the Debug Console) in KSP also works fine. It's just the game control keys (eg 'M' for Map, or 'R' for RCS) don't work.

[4x4cheesecake]

I've got a laptop with Arch Linux and KDE, I can try to recreate this problem later on. Its such a strange behaviour

[steve_v]

Cannot reproduce.
KSP 1.4.3, Gentoo amd64, Plasma 5.12.5, Frameworks 5.46.0.

[4x4cheesecake]

I can not reproduce this problem either. Just installed a virtual machine with debian 9, KDE and KSP 1.4.3 through steam but everything works perfectly fine.

I'm sorry but I have absolute no idea why this happens to you and my best advise would be the standart procedure: verify game files via steam or even better, a clean reinstall

[micha]

On 6/17/2018 at 4:36 PM, 4x4cheesecake said:

I can not reproduce this problem either. Just installed a virtual machine with debian 9, KDE and KSP 1.4.3 through steam but everything works perfectly fine.

Thanks for trying this - I'm a bit busy today, but that was going to be my next step; clean install of Linux in a VM.

Quote

I'm sorry but I have absolute no idea why this happens to you and my best advise would be the standart procedure: verify game files via steam or even better, a clean reinstall

I already did this; several times!  It must be *some* setting or bad config file somewhere in my system, but it *only* affects KSP1.4.x. It's very very strange.

 

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Update:

SOLVED!

By default, KDE is setup to use a 101-key keyboard layout. My physical keyboard is a 105-key UK keyboard.

Changing the keyboard layout in KDE from 101 to 105 fixed it in KSP1.4.3.

Looks like Unity 2017 and/or KSP 1.4 changed the way how keys are processed considering earlier versions of KSP worked just fine.

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Update 2:

Really Solved (?)

It wasn't the physical layout; it was the fact that I had multiple keyboard maps configured to let me switch between languages. Removing one makes KSP work. Unity bug or KSP bug?

 

Edited June 18, 2018 by micha
Distinguish merged replies

[4x4cheesecake]

10 minutes ago, micha said:

SOLVED!

By default, KDE is setup to use a 101-key keyboard layout. My physical keyboard is a 105-key UK keyboard.

Changing the keyboard layout in KDE from 101 to 105 fixed it in KSP1.4.3.

Looks like Unity 2017 and/or KSP 1.4 changed the way how keys are processed considering earlier versions of KSP worked just fine.

Haha, nice Glad to hear you solved this!

[micha]

1 minute ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Haha, nice Glad to hear you solved this!

And thanks to you guys for ruling out some of the possibilities which were going to take quite some time.

 

Now, back to work. On a Sunday. :(

[AutumnFox]

I can see the thread is rather old, however maybe my answer helps somebody

I faced the same issue with KSP 1.12 from steam and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed 15.3/KDE and multi-layout US/RU.

Im my situation the issue was fixed with two steps:

1. Set keyboard hardware to what is actually used (I have 105 keys keyboard, was 101 in system settings)

2. Set default system layout to US, keeping US/RU variants with KDE switch. However, it may affect pure console sessions (frankly, i guess if somebody is using pure console with no X they hardly have steam and KSP installed...)

[KizhiFox]

If you use multiple languages in your system, you should change keyboard input language to English before starting the game. That works for me. Then you're in the game, you can change your input language back.

Edited March 6, 2022 by KizhiFox
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