Karabiner-elements: Can't login because of repeated key strokes

[gersomvg]

Since today (but it started already before the update to 0.90.46) I sometimes can't login to my Macbook, because the keyboard behaves as if a key were stuck. The password field is spammed with characters.

Only fix is hard reboot. I suspect Karabiner Elements to be the cause. I will turn karabiner elements off and see if the problem persists.

Btw: many other issues I had were solved by 0.90.46, for which I'm grateful!

[aleksandrs-ledovskis]

When this happens on login page, guess there is no option other than reboot slim chance that you can work it through.

In case keys become stuck in regular session one could try quitting Karabiner Elements and relaunching application back. This way I solved it couple of times & didn't need reboot. Haven't experienced the bug since update to 0.90.47, so maybe 25fb5738a22de9fbf14b96fc34180bee6c4cdf30 does fix it for good 🍀

[healther]

I have to report that this can also happen with 0.90.47, had it this morning and was also forced to do a hard reboot. However I could not isolate a reason, I suspect it had something to do with starting to type and use remapped keys, before the system was ready to accept commands.

[gersomvg]

Then I'm happy that I didn't get to reinstalling Karabiner yet :)

[michaelherold]

This just occurred on my machine after I had logged in. I had the 1 key acting like it was stuck just after login. I'm running 0.90.48. The only thing I have in my configuration is a line trying to remap Fn to Control_L.

Nothing was showing up for me in the EventViewer, so I'm not sure if there's much more information I can provide. I'm happy to if there is something!

[gersomvg]

It's marvellous how fast my brain gets used to not being able to use caps lock as backspace anymore. 😂 Same experience as forgetting how to QWERTY after a few days of Colemak, last year.

[aleksandrs-ledovskis]

Not willing to cargo-cult anyone, but I managed to login once while keys were stuck'ish. The keyboard wasn't fully stuck (didn't type one key in mad repeat), but I could see that it did misbehave when clicking on language switcher and witnessing it swinging madly.

Can't give you an exact list of actions taken that worked for me, but it involved closing lid & forcing sleeping, pressing Power button and clicking <Esc> and <TAB> keys.

Eventually, macOS accepted the password! 🙏

---

Of course, right after login I immediately went to check the logs.

Here's excerpt of Karabiner's one:

[2016-10-22 08:16:24.365] [info] [grabber] iopm_client::callback kIOMessageSystemWillPowerOn
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.368] [info] [grabber] device_grabber::resume
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.460] [info] [grabber] removal device:
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.460] [info] [grabber]   vendor_id: 0x5ac
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.460] [info] [grabber]   product_id: 0x263
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.460] [info] [grabber]   location_id: 0x14400000
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.483] [info] [grabber] matching device:
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.484] [info] [grabber]   manufacturer: Apple Inc.
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.484] [info] [grabber]   product: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.484] [info] [grabber]   vendor_id: 0x5ac
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.484] [info] [grabber]   product_id: 0x263
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.484] [info] [grabber]   location_id: 0x14400000
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.484] [info] [grabber]   registry_entry_id: 4295084440
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.513] [info] [grabber] event_tap_manager grabbed mouse events
[2016-10-22 08:16:24.513] [info] [grabber] Connected devices are grabbed
[2016-10-22 08:16:48.323] [info] [grabber] iopm_client::callback kIOMessageSystemHasPoweredOn
[2016-10-22 08:17:00.346] [info] [grabber] iopm_client::callback kIOMessageSystemWillSleep
[2016-10-22 08:17:00.347] [info] [grabber] device_grabber::suspend
[2016-10-22 08:17:00.348] [info] [grabber] event_tap_manager ungrabbed mouse events
[2016-10-22 08:17:00.348] [info] [grabber] Connected devices are ungrabbed
[2016-10-22 08:17:08.884] [info] [grabber] iopm_client::callback kIOMessageSystemWillPowerOn
[2016-10-22 08:17:08.884] [info] [grabber] device_grabber::resume
[2016-10-22 08:17:08.984] [info] [grabber] event_tap_manager grabbed mouse events
[2016-10-22 08:17:08.984] [info] [grabber] Connected devices are grabbed
[2016-10-22 08:17:09.427] [info] [grabber] iopm_client::callback kIOMessageSystemHasPoweredOn

Other log files visible from Console.app didn't show up any Karabiner/Input related faults or messages of interest.

[lericson]

Super annoying, this happens to me too. Just when I was getting used to having swapped Esc and Caps Lock. Oh, well. It only happens after longer sleep, and I've not yet got it to log in -- I just force reboot. Perhaps next time I can get in with SSH and somehow prod Karabiner to make it stop.

[jeffbargmann]

2nded happens to me after long sleep, I assume hibernation. This is literally the reason why I haven't yet upgraded main laptop to Sierra 😳

[fent]

Has happened twice to me so far.

One alternative to rebooting that works for me is to login as the guest user which doesn't require a password, then logout.

[sv3k]

I'm experiencing this issue at least once per day, usually in Facebook Messenger and Telegram (their web versions in Chrome).

[aleksandrs-ledovskis]

As there seems not to be a reliable way to trigger this bug I thought about changes to Karabiner which could help mitigate the problem.

General

(1) Karabiner could auto-detect if it's spamming some key (e.g. same character is pressed continuously for say 10 seconds) and switch itself off

(2) A new _to key_ could be added that when triggered would do one of following actions. Users could then map it to some infrequently used button

2.1 Toggle (pause/unpause) Karabiner
2.2 Exit Karabiner

Login prompt related

(3) Do detection of login prompt and either:

3.1 Disable processing & pass-through all key events
3.2 Auto-shut Karabiner down & relaunch it after successful login

[tekezo]

This issue is essentially unavoidable due to the limitation of macOS API.
However, Karabiner-Elements is doing workarounds for this issue.
(eg. Karabiner-Elements does not grab devices while the key is pressed.)

I've improved sleep/wake up handling in v0.90.63.
Please upgrade to the latest version.

You face this issue even in the latest version, I guess you are using external keyboard.
Please disconnect the device and connect it again to stop key repeat.

[burakalver]

I am using v12.2.0 without an external keyboard and still facing this issue. It only happens when the mac wakes up from a sleep, typically overnight...

[jeffutter]

I'm having the same issue still on 12.2.0

Next time it happens, is there somewhere I can grab a log via ssh?