"Modern" Firmware Becomes Unusable with CTRL and ALT keyboards

[Swivelgames]

Unfortunately, it appears that a bug with these keyboards has all but been ignored for a few months now.

Here's a few excerpts of a comment I made alongside many others in response to the announcement posted by @just-another-jxliu:

This has been driving me up a wall to the point that I decided to demonstrate the issue with a video.

I used the same exact config with each "Firmware Version".

Issue

On fresh new PC boot, the keyboard becomes completely unusable unless you unplug and plug it back in.

Visualizing The Issue

Reproduction of the issue: https://youtu.be/tienz1HhNjQ

Note: The video is a little fast-paced.

Reproduction Steps

This state that the keyboard is in is easily and repeatedly reproducible if you use a USB 3.0 switch like the Sabrent USB-SW30. Clicking the switch puts the keyboard in the unusable state.

Result

Until you unplug the keyboard, it's in an unusable state:

• All mappings revert to stock
• First keystroke is captured
• Subsequent keystrokes are ignored
• Keyboard remains in an unrecoverable state

The first key that is pressed is captured, but it is done so with the standard out of the box keyboard layout.

For instance, my Caps Lock key is set to MO(2). But, when my keyboard gets into this state, the key reverts back to a standard Caps Lock key. Pressing it as the first key turns Caps Lock on, and subsequent keypresses with another keyboard will output uppercase characters. Turning Caps Lock on/off with the other keyboard will revert it back to lowercase.

Note: I have personally reproduced this issue with:

• macOS
• Windows 10
• Windows 11
• Arch Linux (Kernel 5.18.12)

[jthrilly]

Just wanted to add that I'm also experiencing this, and it is incredibly frustrating.