I got a new keyboard but when I swap it over to my NUCs it issues control chars

is it a normal keyboard?

like, there's no weird macro crap you could have enabled?

and I guess the other question is does the USB identify it in super weird layout

I forget how you can see HID details

control characters as in press A, get control-A, or press A, get random gibberish?

oh, good question

the former might be a stuck modifier key (either for real, or leftover phantom state after the key-up event got lost)

it's always fun when something is left pressing on the shift key too long and sticky keys gets unintentionally enabled