Only can type in caps. It acts like the shift key is stuck

Question

Its not my keyboard. I have tried multiple keyboards.

Everything I type is in CAPS.

When I try and click on a line it acts like the Shift key is held down and selects stuff.

Please Help

If you're typing in to a terminal, please add the results of stty -a to your question, or tell us what program you're using, what version of Ubuntu, what hardware, when (before or after last power cycle) the keyboard was connected, how it is connected (USB or PS/2). — waltinator, Feb 12 '13 at 21:14
This seems to be a known Mutter issue. You can add your comment/information and track progress there. There is also an Ubuntu downstream issue. — Peque, Mar 09 '25 at 23:00

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 20 '22 at 06:44

14

This happened to me in Ubuntu 18.04. If you press both Shift and caps lock the keyboard reverts to its normal behavior. Pressing them both again will change to uppercase and not even tapping caps lock works to get lower case.

edited Feb 20 '22 at 06:44

cocomac

3,894

answered Mar 02 '21 at 22:15

carlos palma

273

1

This worked for me in Ubuntu 20.04 too. – Erel Segal-Halevi Mar 07 '21 at 12:12
I feel like this question and answer are massively underrated - they should be up there with the famous "how do i get out of vi"... perhaps OP should reword the question in capital letters :) P.S This strikes me as the dumbest of "features" and should be filed as a bug... what is its purpose? Who ever said I need a caps lock lock? – SwiftD Oct 22 '24 at 15:59

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 10 '15 at 19:00

5

Check your Universal Access settings. You can find it by going to the Ubuntu Dash (Click the Ubuntu icon at the top left, or press the Super/"Windows" key>), and typing in the word sticky. Make sure Sticky keys setting is turned off.

If you press and hold the Shift key for about 5 seconds it should turn the Shift sticky on/off.

edited Mar 10 '15 at 19:00

Sooraj Soman

1,111

answered Feb 12 '13 at 21:23

Argusvision

1,721

@ Seth The Shift Key does not work. @waltinator Im using Ubuntu 12.04 desktop. The keyboard(s) are USB. I can't power down the computer since its running a program I cant close. @ Argusvision The sticky keys are disabled – Jeff Fischer Feb 12 '13 at 21:30
Pressing and holding the Shift key for five seconds worked for me. Thanks! – markfullmer Mar 31 '24 at 20:26

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 20 '17 at 20:28

5

I still find this happening occasionally. To avoid a DenverCoder9 situation: I find that if I lock the screen and unlock it, it fixes this.

answered May 20 '17 at 20:28

Gary B

51

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '19 at 23:55

3

Double tap the Shift key to turn off all caps.

edited Jun 20 '19 at 23:55

Eliah Kagan

119,820

answered Jun 20 '19 at 13:21

user967869

31

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 04 '22 at 06:51

2

In Ubuntu 22.04, the default activation/deactivation of Caps Lock is Alt+Caps Lock. That is, if you have occasionally pressed Alt+CapsLock, you need to press Alt+CapsLock again to disable it. No need to wait for N seconds, the combination just works instantly, once you release the keys.

answered Aug 04 '22 at 06:51

Dmitry Mikushin

131
2

If you happen to be working in a Debian/Ubuntu virtual machine hosted on macOS, the proper intervention is command + caps lock. – JDQ Aug 15 '23 at 02:59

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 21 '23 at 18:43

2

Press Right-Ctrl+CapsLock to correct this.

edited Sep 21 '23 at 18:43

zx485

2,894

answered Sep 12 '23 at 18:43

Rubens Magalhães

21

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 18 '24 at 16:03

Inverted caps - happened when using an external keyboard with a laptop Caps lock led light on - lower case Caps lock led off - upper case

SOLUTION:

turn caps led on
open terminal
type : sudo shutdown -h now
once computer is shutdown unplug and replug your external keyboard
SOLVED!

This above issue has been tested using an external keyboard. Hope this helps.

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 13 '21 at 15:19

-1

Temporary solution If you are getting lowercase input on shift then try this..

For fedora 34 enable stick keys in the settings and double click shift button to input lowercase letters.

Hopefully work for all linux!!

answered Sep 13 '21 at 15:19

gaurav

113

2

This would potentially work for typing but really mess with your other action keys such as CTRL, ALT, Super ++. I do not think this is a solution to the problem, rather a workaround, sadly with little benefit. – denNorske Sep 13 '21 at 16:48
It's not a completely horrible suggestion if all else fails, but I agree that all of the other answers should be tried first. That said, the original question was asked over 8 years ago since the user couldn't try rebooting the computer due to a long-running program. Hopefully they've been able to reboot since then ;-). – NotTheDr01ds Sep 13 '21 at 20:21

Only can type in caps. It acts like the shift key is stuck

8 Answers8