Esc key does not take me out of insert mode in vi, vim, gvim

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Hi. I am using Manjaro with a KDE Plasma desktop. This is a recent installation, as in this weekend. (Mar. 2-3()

My go-to editors are Gvim in graphical, and vi in the console. No problems for the first little while, but now the ESC key does not take me out of Insert mode.

I just used the menu editor to check keyboard shortcuts for all my applications, not noticing anything untoward. I am a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, and they are one thing I do early after an install.

One thing I did was install neovim and neovimqt with the Add / Remove Software app, but removed them right away with pamac.

I installed vim and Gvim with pamac on the console.

I tried removing Gvim and vim from the console, but after removing Gvim, vim was also gone. ??

After reinstalling Gvim, the problem persits.

Where do I look to find how this was caused?

Thanks in advance.

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Hi.

First you can check if the Esc key is malfunctioning in general. Does it work with other keyboard shortcuts and in other applications?

Secondly, check your ~/.vimrc file to see if something is off there.

Other key combinations to exit the Insert mode are Ctrl+[ and Ctrl+c. You can use one of them until you figure out why Esc isn’t working.

gVim provides also vim for use in the terminal, uninstalling gVim will also uninstall vim.

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I was using the onboard keyboard of my Lenovo ideapad 300 when the problem occurred. I switched to a wireless device and the problem persisted. I booted into Fedora and both keyboards worked fine, with Gvim and vi. I also booted into Mint and again no problems.

My home folder does not have a .vimrc file, and the /etc/vimrc did not shout error to me.

The key combos you suggested will have to stand in for the nonce, thank you kindly for the pointer.

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To me it indicates some keyboard malfunction or a configuration change.

On my system all the mentioned apps works as expected.

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Since both keyboards work as expected when I run other distros, I have to think it is a configuration issue.

I have been using Plasma for quite a while, since Debian Stretch, so I hope I know how to create shortcuts for my apps. Can’t see me doing something odd in that area.

Don’t have a ~/.vimrc,
/etcdefault/keyboard looks normal,
and the /etc/vimrc only has one line in it. => runtime! archlinux.vim

The copy of Manjaro on this computer, a MS Surface Pro 3 runs gvim and vi in a normal manner. Go figure.

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I don’t have to. I don’t have the problem.

You pointed out that is was not consistent - starts out fine - then it changes behaviour …

So one is left to speculate … :man_shrugging: