esc key does not work

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 04 October 2014 14:18:33 Asif Iqbal did opine
And Gene did reply:
> On Sat, Oct 4, 2014 at 2:05 PM, Asif Iqbal <vadud3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi All
> > 
> > My escape key does not work. I am running ubuntu trusty 64bit on my
> > laptop HP ProBook 650 G1.
> > 
> > I tried with vim and could not get out of insert mode.
> > 
> > I clicked on File menu for any application and when hit escape it did
> > not disappear.
> > 
> > Any suggestion on how to fix it.
> > 
> > Thanks
> 
> I opened the keyboard with System Settings -> Text Entry -> Keyboard
> Icon. Then every key
> I touch, the corresponding key in the Keyboard in display lits up. But
> when I hit the Escape
> key, the Escape key does not lit up at all. It is a brand new laptop,
> so I doubt escape key is
> broken.
> 
> > Asif Iqbal
> > PGP Key: 0xE62693C5 KeyServer: pgp.mit.edu
> > A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
> > Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

My first and last impression is that the keyboard _is_ broken.  Pressing a 
key should generate a keydown event and releasing it should generate a 
keyup event, with the identification of the key mixed into it.  The esc 
key is generally represent in ascii as ^[, a two char indicator that if 
$20 was added to the keys value, it would then display as a [.  Ask for a 
warranty replacement and don't give up till they try a new one.

Most of these things can also accept a USB keyboard, and you can use that 
perhaps to convince TPTB that the internal one of kaput.  Plug one in, 
find it in the keyboard menu, and see if the esc key is working on the one 
plugged in.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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