FN keys and backspace stop working after suspend-resume

[sundarnagarajan]

Following issue is confirmed on Ubuntu Mate 16.04.3 LTS

All the FN-Fx keys are detected, and out of the box after a fresh boot (or in live session) work perfectly - see below. However, after a suspend + resume, some of the keys - in particular F3 (Volume down), F4 (Volume Up), F5: Mute/Unmute stop working. This will manifest as:

Key does not produce OSD or have any effect, but the key combination can be detected under System --> Preferences --> Hardware --> Keyboard Shortcuts (in Ubuntu Mate) as a candidate for a key binding - often appearing as something like Mod4 + XF86AudioLowerVolume rather than XF86AudioLowerVolume.

In such cases, even the Backspace key stops working

[sundarnagarajan]

The problem has been solved (at least on Ubuntu Mate where I found the problem was present). I will be adding a fix. In short, the fix will contain:

• A systemd script to be run as the user (not as root) during the resume process
• This systemd script will call /etc/resume_fix_keyboard.sh - which contains the actual fix
• /etc/resume_fix_keyboard.sh uses xdotool to send the keystroke Super_L + Delete which fixes the problem!
• xdotool package will be installed automatically within the ISO
• User will need to run a linux command to rename and enable the systemd script if the problem is present
• Cannot automatically enable the systemd script, since the name of the script needs to include the name of the non-root user

It looks like mate-settings-daemon is stuck in some bad 'state' after a resume that is fixed by pressing Super_L + Delete. Also works if you press this key combination manually. Super_L + F3 or Super_L + F4 also work.

This is technically an upstream bug - I have just found a workaround