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Mac OS X 10.2.x Disables Modifier Keys?
drunkToaster writes " Adobe's support pages note that Mac OS X 10.2.x fails to re-enable modifier keys after an authentication session. The keys are disabled during the user/password dance as a security measure. Adobe explains a workaround for the problem which drastically effects many of its applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc)." This makes no sense to me; I authenticate to various servers etc. all day long, and never have problems with modifier keys. The Adobe explanation seems wholly inadequate.
It's only true if the application in question uses GetKeys() to determine the state of the modifier keys. In some recent posts to the mac-games-dev mailing list (many games still use this function) this was acknowledged by Apple as a known bug (#3149605).
The proper way to do it is call GetCurrentModifierKeys(), as GetKeys() is one of the bits of rot that didn't get dropped when Apple moved to OS X.
(emphasis mine)
If the password dialog caused the shift key to be disabled, how the heck am I able to log in with my mixed-case password, huh? I use my Mac OS X constantly and I've never run into any problem that looks remotely like this. They're on crack.
"The great thing about multitasking is that several things can go wrong at once." -me
--Grammar Snob
I am a homosexual. I bought an Apple computer because of its well earned reputation for being "the" gay computer. Since I have become an Apple owner, I have been exposed to a whole new world of gay friends. It is really a pleasure to meet and compute with other homos such as myself. I plan on using my new Apple computer as a way to entice and recruit young schoolboys into the homosexual lifestyle; it would be so helpful if you could produce more software which would appeal to young boys. Thanks in advance.
with much gayness,
Father Randy "Pudge" O'Day, S.J.
I was reinstalling 10.2.4 on a Rev A iBook and as I was rolling up the various
updates to get things current, I had to authenticate several times. I've got
some punctuation in my password and suddenly it was rejecting my pass.
I thought it was a hardware problem with the keyboard. I finally figured out
what happened, rebooted, and things started working ok again.
And for those of you questioning the validity of this issue . . as realgone mentioned, option and shift are vital to successful use of Adobe design products. Option allows you to de-select items and subtract from the currently selected pixel area while shift allows you to select additional items and and additional pixels. Also option is used to define the cloned area for the cloning stamp.
This makes no sense to me; I authenticate to various servers etc. all day long, and never have problems with modifier keys.
That's because you're running Windows!
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
FileMaker Pro running under classic (at least versions 4.1 and 5.0) has a wonderful problem. When you drag things in layout mode, FileMaker drag copies. This problem began in 10.2.3 or possibly earlier, so I suspect this little keyboard problem is the cause.
;} Has anyone figured out a better workaround?
The solution Adobe gives is a _bad_ workaround. I really don't like leaving my machine completely open to the world by turning off the screensaver password. They should have to know more than the average script kiddie to break into my machine.
the clock on the wall says 4 til 7
I want a way to disable the retarded comments that the /. staff place on the end of posted articles. They're not funny, don't make any sense and usually only shows how misinformed they are. They're greatly contributing to my growing distain for Slashdot.
Their credibility is erroded a little more when they do their very best to turn each article into into an episode of Jerry Springer. What next? Are they going to start hurling chairs across the room?
This is absolutely the most infuriating OS X problem i've run into yet... Perhaps even moreso than having to reboot when you forget to trash a network drive after you've left the office. Why? Because it's _unpredictable_. I.E. right now, everything's fine. But will it be 15 minutes from now??
Lord knows.
I can't IMAGINE how Apple could leave this unfixed. Makes no sense.
"In the end, we all fall back on fiction." -- Lonely Planet
I know some director coders who were getting this error and couldn't track it down. Hopefully, this is the issue.
To whomever caught it, good catch!
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Pudge dreams about Steve Jobs during his dialy jackoff sessions.
Sorry, I find Adobe more credible.
interesting expression for sticking your thumb up your ass and licking it.
Grrrr! I'm constantly annoyed that Adobe thought that it would be cool in Illustrator if Cmd-H hides/shows object edges, rather than hiding the application (unlike every other OSX app!) Even if I'm not getting the error in the story, that particular modifier key is useless to me because I can't remember to use some different key combination to hide Illustrator!
I noticed this, but couldn't figure out what caused the problem. (I have a new iBook).
There is a game called Deimos Rising bundled that uses modifier keys. When it stopped working moving from 10.2.3 to 10.2.4 I was damn angry, even if I never play it.
My photoshop is also effected. I can use commands like cmd-q, but I can't do things like hold the option to change my lasso type!
About time someone releases a knowledgebase. I'm dissapointed that it wasn't Apple however. There must be lots of apps effected.
I use Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign all day, every day. I am running 10.2.4. I even connect to SMB servers at work.
So what's the deal? I tried recreating the conditions in the Adobe article by doing exactly the opposite of their instructions. No problem here. I have logged out, back in, and have all 3 programs running...I'm using modifying keys all over the place! Wait a minute...let's reboot the machine and see...just a second...Oh yeah! I'm modifying, baby!
Maybe somebody out there enabled the root user, screwed up their permissions, and then complained to Adobe about it.
Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.
That Layout Mode bug makes me crazy!! I still have many clients running FM 4, and I have to develop for them, which means that I have to cut and paste to change object locations. That is a real pain when trying to move many items and keep them lined up.
I wish Apple or FileMaker would fix this bug! FileMaker Inc is a subsidiary of Apple, so there can be no finger-pointing excuses. Fix this!
Oh, I get the "you have no modifier keys anymore, ha ha" bug in FileMaker 6.0v4 for OS X, as well. Restarting the application does not fix this issue. I'd like to see FileMaker work on building OS X products that don't have major interface issues. How about when you try to see what related fields a sort is based on, but the column is too narrow to see the whole field? Just resize the window, right? Nope! We're still stuck with non-resizable dialog boxes all over the place!
FMI, please get your act together! You have a great lead in the easy database development arena, but these flaws are wearing away at your edge in convenience.
Lose essential liberties to get temporary safety = get only hassles and security theater.
distain for Slashdot.
Try a little lemon juice, I hear it can be very helpful with stubborn stains. Otherwise, you might want to start using a bib.
Thanks, this solves a mystery that has been bothering me. From time to time the default jump key in Harry Potter and the Socer's Stone game is the control key. From time to time it would just stop working. When I tried to reassign the function to the shift key, no go either. Now it all makes sense.
Apple laptops are effectively unusable for unix users.
I am a long-time Unix user. That means I need to have the Ctrl key to the left of the A key. This is a genuine need, not merely a want; it is based upon ergonomics. The Ctrl key is heavily used in unix, and it must be easily accessable. It cannot be off in the lower left corner of the keyboard where it is difficult to get at, and where it distorts the position of your left hand such that you can't easily type other keys while holding the Ctrl key down.
Apple desktop keyboards are now all USB. They are all OK. The CapsLock key can be re-mapped into a Ctrl key.
Unfortunately, even in this modern age, all Apple laptops have built-in ADB keyboards. The ADB keyboard is broken-by-design. It is, in general, not possible to remap the CapsLock key into a Ctrl key.
There are some exceptions, but they are horrible kludges. They are horrible kludges because the original design of the ADB keyboard was a horrible kludge. The correct solution would be for Apple to re-design their laptop motherboards to use built-in USB keyboards. This hasn't happened yet. If you run Linux, use Debian's solution. For Mac OS X users, uControl works. There are no solutions (that I know of) for either NetBSD or OpenBSD. Please note once again that the "solutions" above are in fact kludges, because of the original bad design of the ADB keyboard.
Apple provides a technical note on how to remap the keyboard, but provides no solution to the hardware problems caused by the design of the ADB keyboard. This tech note helps foreign language users, but does nothing for the CapsLock/Ctrl problem.
Apple is (currently) ignoring Unix users! This is not merely speculation on my part. In an on-going email exchange I am having with an Apple employee (whom I won't name) in their marketing department, the Apple marketing person directly stated to me that Apple was catering to their historic Mac customers, and is purposely ignoring the Unix market. He also claimed that Apple would soon start paying more attention to the Unix market. I won't hold my breath. Apple has been ignoring Unix users for more than 12 years. I expect that trend to continue.
Apple has now lost two opportunities to sell me hardware. I really wanted an Apple laptop for their superior battery life, and for the PowerPC with Altivec CPU. (The Altivec is vastly superior to the x86 line for DSP.) Because I can't live with the broken-by-design built-in ADB keyboard in all Apple laptops, Sony and IBM sold me laptops instead. If Apple fixes this problem, they will sell me a PowerBook next year; if they don't, I'll still be running OpenBSD on x86 hardware, and wishing I could use a Mac.
I can verify that this IS a problem.
It doesn't affect too many people, and happens very rarely, but now and then I find that holding down shift in Photoshop does NOT cause a pen to draw in a straight line as it should. It's as if I have not pressed the key at all.
The only way out afaik is to reboot.
Becasue I have had extreme difficulty in reproducing the bug on command I can uderstand how this has taken a long time to get noticed properly.
-Nex
This sig has been deprecated.
The 'heisenbug', isn't it?
I had this problem in 10.1.2, then it went away in 10.1.3 and came back in 10.1.4 and has never left. A fix in the past was to turn on 'Full Keyboard Access' in the Keyboard preference pane. This is a temporay fix and requires a logout/login to take effect, and sometime a complete reboot. I have noticed that this 'modifier key strangeness' only happens when i connect to some SMB servers, and not all. I wonder if it depends on the version of Windows running on the box with the shared volumes and how that version of winbloz id authenticating. It sure pisses me off when it happens though, and I wish Apple would get off their collective asses and fix it.