Since 2.5.32 the keyboard repeat code was broken.

The reason Vojtech broke it was the stupid name of a field
in struct kbd_repeat, namely "rate".  Every sane person
expects that a rate has dimension [1/sec], but here the
"rate" is a time period measured in msec.

So, the patch below first of all fixes the code,
and secondly changes the name.
Since Vojtech used PERIOD as index, I also used period
as field name in the struct.

Half of the stuff below is actually from Alan Stern.

Andries

drivers/char/keyboard.c

@@ -264,23 +264,34 @@ void kd_mksound(unsigned int hz, unsigned int ticks)
 /*
  * Setting the keyboard rate.
  */
+static inline unsigned int ms_to_jiffies(unsigned int ms) {
+	unsigned int j;
+
+	j = (ms * HZ + 500) / 1000;
+	return (j > 0) ? j : 1;
+}
+
 int kbd_rate(struct kbd_repeat *rep)
 {
-	struct list_head * node;
-
-	if (rep->rate < 0 || rep->delay < 0)
-		return -EINVAL;
+	struct list_head *node;
+	unsigned int d = 0;
+	unsigned int p = 0;
 
 	list_for_each(node,&kbd_handler.h_list) {
 		struct input_handle *handle = to_handle_h(node);
-		if (test_bit(EV_REP, handle->dev->evbit)) {
-			if (rep->rate > HZ) rep->rate = HZ;
-			handle->dev->rep[REP_PERIOD] = rep->rate ? (HZ / rep->rate) : 0;
-			handle->dev->rep[REP_DELAY] = rep->delay * HZ / 1000;
-			if (handle->dev->rep[REP_DELAY] < handle->dev->rep[REP_PERIOD])
-				handle->dev->rep[REP_DELAY] = handle->dev->rep[REP_PERIOD];
+		struct input_dev *dev = handle->dev;
+
+		if (test_bit(EV_REP, dev->evbit)) {
+			if (rep->delay > 0)
+				dev->rep[REP_DELAY] = ms_to_jiffies(rep->delay);
+			if (rep->period > 0)
+				dev->rep[REP_PERIOD] = ms_to_jiffies(rep->period);
+			d = dev->rep[REP_DELAY]  * 1000 / HZ;
+			p = dev->rep[REP_PERIOD] * 1000 / HZ;
 		}
 	}
+	rep->delay  = d;
+	rep->period = p;
 	return 0;
 }
 

drivers/char/vt_ioctl.c

@@ -430,6 +430,7 @@ int vt_ioctl(struct tty_struct *tty, struct file * file,
 	case KDKBDREP:
 	{
 		struct kbd_repeat kbrep;
+		int err;
 		
 		if (!capable(CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG))
 			return -EPERM;
@@ -437,8 +438,9 @@ int vt_ioctl(struct tty_struct *tty, struct file * file,
 		if (copy_from_user(&kbrep, (void *)arg,
 				   sizeof(struct kbd_repeat)))
 			return -EFAULT;
-		if ((i = kbd_rate( &kbrep )))
-			return i;
+		err = kbd_rate(&kbrep);
+		if (err)
+			return err;
 		if (copy_to_user((void *)arg, &kbrep,
 				 sizeof(struct kbd_repeat)))
 			return -EFAULT;

drivers/sbus/char/uctrl.c

@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ struct uctrl_status {
 	u8 speaker_volume; /* 0x23 */
 	u8 control_tft_brightness; /* 0x24 */
 	u8 control_kbd_repeat_delay; /* 0x28 */
-	u8 control_kbd_repeat_rate; /* 0x29 */
+	u8 control_kbd_repeat_period; /* 0x29 */
 	u8 control_screen_contrast; /* 0x2F */
 };
 

include/linux/kd.h

@@ -134,7 +134,8 @@ struct kbkeycode {
 
 struct kbd_repeat {
 	int delay;	/* in msec; <= 0: don't change */
-	int rate;	/* in msec; <= 0: don't change */
+	int period;	/* in msec; <= 0: don't change */
+			/* earlier this field was misnamed "rate" */
 };
 
 #define KDKBDREP        0x4B52  /* set keyboard delay/repeat rate;