I've lived with a no-repeat keyboard config for some time now, but it bugs me when editing. I tried "xset r on" to try and enable repeat, but this doesn't work. I also tried the keyboard settings from the preferences menu (sliders), but they didn't work either. If someone knows how this is enabled, please advise (StellarMate OS).....Thanks!
Have the same problem with my independent Ubuntu MATE installation on the RPi4. It seems to be architecture specific. The next best thing to get around it is to hold down Ctrl while you use the left or right arrows and the cursor will jump for ~10 steps at a time. That nearly abolishes the issue for me.
I think Wouter probably has it. I think RealVNC is not passing keyboard repeats through. Haven't proved it yet, but looking at X11Vnc (for example), similar issues arise, and there's a parameter/switch to enable repeats. RealVNC doesn't seem to have a similar parameter. So, I'm probably stuck not having an auto-repeat unless I switch to a VNC that can allow this through.
By the way, I just tested and for me it works. I use x11vnc on my Linux mini-pc and the RealVNC client on my MacBook.
EDIT: I checked the configuration options for RealVNC and this behavior is enabled by default. For installing and configuring x11vnc I did nothing special either, just followed this
That would match my experience. As I wrote, to me it seems it is architecture specific. I am using the same version of Ubuntu MATE on my miniPC (Zotac) and on my RPi4.
I also use x11vnc on both computers for connection. The installations are identical in virtually all respects.
Keyboard repeat works on the miniPC and I have the keyboard repeat issue ONLY on the Pi4.
I had it fixed once in MATE Tweak and repeat was working fine for the session, but it reverted after restart.
I simply have not felt like it was worth spending the time to figure out where in the configuration files this is determined and what I can do to make the change permanent, but if someone else knows, please let us know.
I installed RealVNC in my VirtualBox ubuntu guest environment (on the windows PC host), and keyboard repeat works fine without any changes on either side. This confirms what wvreeven said about default behavior of RealVNC. So, whatever this issue is, it's something unique to the windows->raspian RealVNC transition. Not sure I want to chase it any further as I can use a VirtualBox ubuntu RealVNC session for any needed edits to Raspian files. Cheers all...