Can key presses be throttled on Linux?

Question

I've got a keyboard (razor black widow stealth) that is malfunctioning in such a way that it periodically sends duplicate key presses for various keys (h and n) so far. I'm looking for ways to delay the purchase of a new one in software.

I'm currently on Kubuntu 18.04. Is there any way to throttle key presses so that 2 key presses of the same key within 500ms (for example) would only register as a single key press? I tried extending the duration of repeat delay to see if it was just being pressed too long but it does look like the keyboard is sending duplicate presses.

Answer 1

If the issue is consistent, you could rig xdotool (install with sudo apt-get install xdotool -y to press backspace immediately after each of these keypresses to delete one of the two keystrokes, then set up a keyboard shortcut to each of the trouble keys to run xdotool key Delete sleep 1. What this does is has xdotool send the delete command immediately after the first keypress, but then provides a 1 second delay for the second keystroke to be sent through. Tested it on my own machine and it made it so that a single keypress wouldn't get sent through, but a quick double-press would.

If you need an inexpensive keyboard to get you through until you can get a new good quality one, thrift stores usually have large stocks of old (but clean) USB office keyboards that can tie you over for $3-5, and you would have it immediately. Nothing flashy, but comfortable enough for typing and gaming so long as you aren't pressing more than 5 keys at once.