Key repeat -revisited

I am aware of the old fix for the issue of keys like 'h', 'j', 'k', 'l' not repeating in a-shell. Supposedly setting CAPSLOCK to ESC allows key repeating.

I also know that this used to work for me. But somewhere along the line, it stopped working. Now, running iOS 26.5 on my iPad Pro 11 with M4 and the Apple Magic Keyboard, it does not.

I have tried toggling CAPSLOCK between producing CTRL (which I prefer) and CAPSLOCK to ESC for repeating keys. When toggling, I have quit and restarted a-shell and also rebooted the iPad.

However, nothing seems to work to make key repeat work when in a-shell.

I do have iVim on this iPad and key repeat for j, k, etc work properly there.

This is just a killer for me and I am desperately looking for a solution. Can anyone help?

Start by reproducing the key-repeat failure in a-shell on iOS 26.5 with an iPad Pro and Apple Magic Keyboard, testing the CAPSLOCK-to-ESC and CAPSLOCK-to-CTRL settings. Compare the behavior with iVim; done means keys such as h, j, k, and l repeat normally in a-shell.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.