# [REWARD!] 2.6.8 kernels - no keyboard or touchpad response

## Maqueo

Hi,

I changed my 2.4.x kernel to the new 2.6.8 kernel (i've tried 2 different flavours, both give me the same problem).

Everything loads OK, but the keyboard and the touchpad don't seem active. There is absolutely no response whatsoever. I have the same problem when I use the 2.6.8 kernel booting Knoppix.

I need the new one because the 2.4 one doesn't recognize my pcmcia usb 2.0  card   :Sad: 

I get no error messages.

Any clues?

Thanks,

MaqueoLast edited by Maqueo on Wed Sep 22, 2004 10:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Maqueo

* bump *

Still haven't been able to find a solution...

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## mianka

Filed a similar complaint on Desktop environments

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## tdb

Are you using evdev? Look and see if you have /dev/events or something like that. Try changing your keyboard device to /dev/events/event0 and mouse to /dev/events/event1. (I forget exactly what they're called, try whatever is there.) Make sure you load the evdev, pcmouse, and any other modules you need to drive your stuff.

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## marius.perijoc

I am having the same problem on 2.6.9-mm on a desktop...

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## Maqueo

 *tdb wrote:*   

> Are you using evdev?

 

I'm not familiar with evdev to be honest   :Shocked: 

 *Quote:*   

> Look and see if you have /dev/events or something like that. 

 

Problem is that I can't do anything at all, the system doesn't seem to hang, but input is nt working. Is there anywhere I can tweak this using knoppix or the livecd?

To make things worse, I tried recompiling the 2.4 kernel so I would at least have a functioning system... but now neither one of the three kernels I have in /boot seem to be working   :Evil or Very Mad: 

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## tdb

 *Maqueo wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I'm not familiar with evdev to be honest   

 

That's fine. I wasn't either until that little gotcha bit me in the ass. I didn't upgrade kernels for at least four months because of it. Evdev (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) is a rewrite of the way the kernel handles input devices like keyboards and mice (both usb and ps/2), touchscreens, trackballs, and the like. The naming scheme changed with it too. Each device now uses /dev/events/event0 , event1, event2, etc... What got me was that everything worked fine in the console, but once X loaded, I lost keyboard and mouse. (had to yank the power cord to reboot.) Turns out you have to add 

Option "Device" "/dev/events/event0"

to the kbd section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf to get the keyboard back. A trick to find out which one is which is to "cat" each device under /dev/events and move the mouse / type on the keyboard. Whatever causes a bunch of garbage to print on the screen is what corresponds to that file. Example: "cat /dev/events/event0" will print garbage when I type on the keyboard. "cat /dev/events/event1" will print garbage when I use the touchpad. event2 is my trackball, etc...

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Problem is that I can't do anything at all, the system doesn't seem to hang, but input is nt working. 

 

Ok, are you booting into X (gdm, kdm, xdm, etc...) or are you booting to console?

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Is there anywhere I can tweak this using knoppix or the livecd?

 

Yes, you can always boot the livecd or knoppix to get back to your system. Just follow the parts of the install guide to set up networking, copy resolv.conf, chroot, env-update, and source /etc/profile. It'll get you a perfectly working system. From there you can do anything like normal, including emerge, kernel compilation, and add/remove programs from init levels. 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> To make things worse, I tried recompiling the 2.4 kernel so I would at least have a functioning system... but now neither one of the three kernels I have in /boot seem to be working  

 

What isn't working with your old kernel. It should work.

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## Maqueo

Hi tdb,

Thanks for your help!

I've recompiled the kernel, and am now working with the gentoo-dev-sources (2.6.8-r3)

I was loggin straight into kde's login manager, but have removed that to try and narrow down possibilities.

I'm still having the same problem when booting into runlevel 3, no keyvoard response at all. (I did try to change the X settings before that and it didnt help)

Clearly the problem is at a lower level than X  :Sad: 

Any more ideas?

Thanlks,

Maqueo

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## mianka

I did an install again -amd64:2.6.8-r4-,without graphical environment and it still freezes mouse and keyboard;both with usb and PS/2.My machine just locks up completely,hard reset is the only way to get out.

What happens is that it starts up normally,I see all the messages passing by without error(as far as I can see) until the login prompt,and by then the keyboard is completely dead.

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## Maqueo

Hi,

Same here. I tried it with Knoppix and about every cheatcode I could pass to the kernel, with no luck at all.

I've tried in other forums, but noone seems to be able to find a solution (very few responses).

The weirdest thing is that it did work with mandrake though... I was using the 2.6.7 kernel (tried emerging that one as well) and no problems at all... pcmcia usb card worked, and everything was ok.

Right now I'm back to the 2.4.x kernel - guess my only option is to wait for a next release...

Good luck,

Maqueo

PS: I'm in Dordrecht, NL btw.

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## Maqueo

* bump *

OK, so here's the deal... i still haven't been able to make this work, so I'm issueing (sp?) a reward for whoever solves this. I'll buy you a Gentoo T-shirt   :Very Happy: 

(if there's more than one person, then let's donate $30 to the FSF or something similar).

The reason is that I'm moving from the Netherlands to the States (NM) next week, and have about 120 Gigs of stuff to back-up Doing this through usb 1.1 (as I'm doing now) is taking.... looooooooooaaaaads of time. (it was working with a 2.6.x kernel in Mandrake, but I dread the thought of switching back.

If we can't find a solution I guess I could add a partition (although I already have the 4 primary ones) and install MDK if nothing else works...

Just to be clear: you only get the t-shirt IF we get the damn pcmcia usb 2.0 card working with the new 2.6.8 kernel....

Cheers,

Maqueo

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## mike4148

Post the input device section of your kernel config (just that section; please, no more  :Smile: ).

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## Maqueo

 *mike4148 wrote:*   

> Post the input device section of your kernel config (just that section; please, no more ).

 

How do I get that info? Jep, major noob   :Confused: 

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## Maqueo

OK, found it:

#

# Input device support

#

CONFIG_INPUT=y

#

# Input Device Drivers

#

CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBOARD=y

CONFIG_KEYBOARD_ATKBD=y

# CONFIG_KEYBOARD_SUNKBD is not set

# CONFIG_KEYBOARD_LKKBD is not set

# CONFIG_KEYBOARD_XTKBD is not set

# CONFIG_KEYBOARD_NEWTON is not set

CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE=y

CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2=y

# CONFIG_MOUSE_SERIAL is not set

# CONFIG_MOUSE_INPORT is not set

# CONFIG_MOUSE_LOGIBM is not set

# CONFIG_MOUSE_PC110PAD is not set

# CONFIG_MOUSE_VSXXXAA is not set

# CONFIG_INPUT_JOYSTICK is not set

# CONFIG_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN is not set

# CONFIG_INPUT_MISC is not set

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## zfc-tinkerer

I'm having a similar problem, at least with my keyboard, and in a forum search a few days ago I found the following partial solution (sorry, I don't seem to be able to find that post again):

When it seems like the keyboard is dead, hit the up arrow key.  This will hopefully make your keyboard work.  My dmesg seems to imply that the keyboard is first detected when I do this.  Why this would be the magic key to get the keyboard detected I don't understand, but it's worth a try.  If it doesn't work, maybe try one of the other arrow keys?  I don't know if this will help your mouse trouble or not, but it at least provides a temporary solution to the keyboard problem.  If the mouse isn't fixed by this, try clicking any extra mouse buttons and using your scroll wheel and things like that.  

I'll definately post back if I find a permanent solution.  Enough people seem to be suddently having problems like this with the newest kernel versions that there seems to be some kind of problem there.  I want my keyboard back without having to hit the up arrow key!    :Mad: Last edited by zfc-tinkerer on Fri Sep 24, 2004 4:03 am; edited 1 time in total

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## zfc-tinkerer

I found a permanent solution, at least on my system!   :Very Happy: 

 Here's what I did:

Add the option i8042.reset to your grub.conf

Now if I only knew _why_ this works!   :Shocked: 

This hint I found at:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=225295

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## Maqueo

 *zfc-tinkerer wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Add the option i8042.reset to your grub.conf
> 
> 

 

Damn, that didn't seem to work for me... 

One another weird thing I have noticed is that at bootup time, with the 2.4 kernel I get a message along the lines of "Keyboard timeout: No AT keyboard plugged in?" yet it works perfectly (including touchpad). 

Take care,

Maqueo

PS: Here's my grub.conf line:

```

kernel /kernel-2.6.8-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/hda3 splash=verbose i8042.reset

```

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## zfc-tinkerer

Something else that I would have tried because it was reported as solving similar problems on other systems was a bios setting called 'USB legacy support'.  If you have a setting like this or any kind of USB keyboard bios setting, try changing it.  Here are a few links where people found this to solve their problem:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122130

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=141299

Hopefully this will help.  The people who were describing this problem were having it even with 2.4 kernels, but linux can be a strange, tempermental creature sometimes.  It's probably at least worth a try.

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## Maqueo

 *zfc-tinkerer wrote:*   

>  If you have a setting like this or any kind of USB keyboard bios setting, try changing it. 

 

Just checked, I don't have that option in my bios   :Rolling Eyes: 

Thanks anyways!

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## zfc-tinkerer

What is your hardware?  I mean, are you using a USB mouse and keyboard?  If so, try using USB-to-PS/2 adapters on them.  (If you're using evdev be careful, this might change the numbering of your devices so things won't work in X)  What happens when you try these things may help with the troubleshooting.  Anyway, in addition to trying this (if you only have one adapter, try it on the keyboard, perhaps with the mouse unplugged and just the console, not X) describe your hardware, and which USB modules your motherboard supports.

One more suggestion:  if you're autoloading any modules other than those absolutely necessary to get your system working in the console, try starting up without them.  Perhaps also try compiling a very stripped down kernel (i.e. leave out SMB even if you use it, leave out firewire and framebuffer if you use them, etc.) in case some other option is conflicting.  SMP and APIC and power control of various kinds are the options that as far as I know are most notorious for causing trouble.

Post the results of these, even if they do something strange but don't solve the problem.

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