Keyboard stops working in Snow Leopard when using Spaces

No, I didn't uninstall Fusion. I just disabled the keyboard shortcuts, and then when I thought "hey, maybe it's Fusion causing this" I re-enabled the Spaces keyboard shortcuts, and the problem hasn't come back yet. (Operative word being "yet"). 🙂

Ah right, ill do that too then.
Ill report back in a week or so if it works 🙂 (sooner if it doesn't 😟 )

Thanks so much for the Hyperspace tip... As luck would have it, Hyperspace was included in the latest MacUpdate bundle so I already own it!

Cheers... now back to grading projects without this freaking problem!

Bill

[WORKAROUND] Relaunch the 'Dock' process

I have been experiencing this problem since 10.6.3.

When I noticed the correlation with the Spaces switch bezel remaining on-screen I tried quitting the Dock process using Activity Viewer and the mouse, and my keyboard came back (seem to remember reading somewhere that Spaces - like Dashboard - is tied to the Dock). It's not a solution, but it's a **** sight better than having to log out or reboot until an official fix comes out... zt99

Argh. This problem is driving me nuts!

What I know so far;

1- The issue is that Spaces appears not to let go of keyboard input after switching spaces using a hotkey.
2- The issue does not appear to be as a result of any particular keyboard or mouse.
3- The issue occurs on OS X 10.6 and is not fixed in the current release 10.6.3
4- The issue is not limited to any particular hardware as it has been reported on MBPs and Mac Pros.
5- Killing the Dock clears the issue (until it happens the next time).
6- It happens sporadically for most people.
7- There was talk of it possibly being related to VMWare. I used to have 2.x installed but have uninstalled it, still getting the issue. One person mentioned not having used VMWare, another mentioned installing VMWare 3.0 and seeing the issue go away.
8- There is talk of it being related to CulturedCode's (excellent!) package 'Things'. Certainly if I use any hotkey to 'Show and Autofill' (which takes the currently selected item and pops up a hot-window to create a new task) then every time I change spaces using CTRL-SPACE the keyboard freezes up and the issue appears.

The one interesting thing in all of this is that the window that 'Things' pops up to autofill is similar in design to the window that Spaces shows up when you change space. I wonder if they use the same API and it is tripping over itself somehow.

So Things seems to be either causing the issue (which I doubt) or allowing it to happen more reliably.

My question- is there anyone out there with this problem who is NOT using CC's 'Things' app?

I am not using CC's Things' app.

Using Hyperspaces did totally fix this issue for me however. I realize that this is really more of a work-around, but the problem is no more.

BB

OK- so Things isn't causing the issue, merely making it easier to replicate.
(Note it is only provoked after using the Things hotkey to do a 'Show and autofill' and not after a 'Show Empty'.)

And the $13 Spaces Alternative 'Hyperspaces' does not see the same problem.

(The sad thing is that I love 'Things' more than Spaces so I'll probably ditch the latter until such a time as it is fixed.)

So... given that reliable replication of an issue is 50% of the battle- how do I report this information to Apple?

Further info gleaned from this thread (just to save people reading it all over again)

- When the issue occurs all key input is blocked, from any HID device.
- When the issue occurs then clicking on the icon of an active app in the Dock (if the app is on a different space) will clear the Spaces 'Window' but doesn't seem to re-enable key input.

I have updated Apple (bug ID 7852625) with information about using Things to provoke it.

I have found I can replicate this problem if I use the Jitouch multi-touch gesture to change spaces (two fix one slide up/down/left/right). However, quitting Jitouch does not cause the problem to go away. If I quit the Dock the keyboard works again.

I will try disabling Jitouch and see if I still get the problem.

I also find that when switching users and at other times the keyboard is often unresponsive and I need to do a CMD-OPT-ESC to bring up the Force Quit dialog, which then lets me type again. All of this is since 10.6.3

zt99

UPDATE: Just disabled Jitouch and tried invoking the normal OS X keyboard shortcuts for changing Spaces (CTRL + arrow keys, CTRL + <Space Number>) and in both cases the issue recurs and I have to quit the Dock.

This suggests Jitouch is not to blame and it is invoking the Space-change bezel that triggers the problem.

zt99

What is everyone's experience re: Killing the Dock workaround?

It doesn't fix this for me. If I kill the dock I can type again but as soon as I hit ctrl+arrows for spaces this recurs.

However I have BetterTouchTool installed and I've tried (1) killing dock (2) quitting BTT (3) restarting BTT. This seems to have fixed it for now, even if I use ctrl+arrows again.

I'll try reproduce if this problem pops up again (it's not that frequent for me). Anyone else with BTT installed experiencing this? I'm guessing it's not individual apps but whatever these things like jitouch, BTT or whatever is hooking into / modifying that's the problem.

Good point- I find that Killing the Dock only fixes the keyboard entry. If I switch spaces with the keyboard again straight away it will hang again. If, after killing the Dock, I leave Spaces alone for a few minutes before switching spaces then it works OK.

FWIW, I don't have BetterTouchTool or Jitouch or Things installed on my Mac, yet I had this problem. This would seem to indicate that they are not the cause (or the only cause) of this issue and that possibly it is another conflict of sorts or perhaps just buggy code out of Cupertino.

As Screaming.Pict mentioned, killing the dock usually got my keyboard working again, but the bezel still remained stuck on the screen.

Some have wondered if the bezel itself is part of the problem. I think not. The bezel still appears and then goes away when I change spaces using keyboard shortcuts set up in Hyperspaces. I don't think that the space change bezel that appears is a Hyperspaces unique bezel either, it certainly seems to be the regular MacOS X spaces bezel.

For me, Spaces is turned on, I am just not invoking it via keyboard shortcuts defined in the Spaces preference window, but rather through the shortcuts defined in the Hyperspaces preferences. Yes, this work-around costs a few bucks, so it isn't the best fix but it does seem to solve the problem.

I'm guessing that if this is not simply a case of bad code from Apple, that maybe there is some other software that we all have in common that is causing a conflict.

Thoughts?

Message was edited by: Bilbo Bowman

Have you got VMware Fusion installed?
Ever since I turned off it's keyboard shortcuts I haven't had this issue!

No, I do not have VM Fusionware or any other virtualization software installed.

Here is a quick list of what system extras I do have installed (that come to mind anyway): ClipMenu, Hyperspaces, Default FolderX, LittleSnitch, Growl.

Bill