SUSE 10, keyboard doesn't work at login
Hi, the keyboard (a rather regular 104-keys kbd) has been working fine until yesterday, no relevant changes have been done in the meantime. It also operates correctly with the BIOS screen and at Grub prompt so I'm pretty sure the hardware is fine. It just stops completely at the login prompt. The PC can be reached via ssh, even the HTTP server works fine. I've done a bit of troubleshooting: Kobold:~ # dmesg|grep keyb input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0 Kobold:~ # tail /var/log/messages|grep keyb Jan 25 14:07:27 Kobold kernel: input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0 Both messages are repeated if I brutally disconnect the PS2 connector and I plug it back. YAST2 doesn't report any issues. Keyboard is configured correctly in there. Any advice on how I should proceed? TIA, -mw P.S. Kobold:~ # uname -r 2.6.13-15.7-default
Both messages are repeated if I brutally disconnect the PS2 connector and I plug it back.
Ouch! That's a good way to blow up your motherboard. PS/2 connectors are not hotplugable - it's NOT part of the PS/2 specification. Depending on the PS/2 controller... hotplugging a PS/2 keyboard or mouse can and will short out your motherboard... permanently. Do not connect/disconnect your PS2 devices (mouse/keyboard) when the computer power is on... or you WILL be diagnosing an entirely new problem... a dead motherboard. C.
Am Mittwoch, 25. Januar 2006 14:28 schrieb Clayton:
Both messages are repeated if I brutally disconnect the PS2 connector and I plug it back.
Ouch! That's a good way to blow up your motherboard. PS/2 connectors are not hotplugable - it's NOT part of the PS/2 specification. Depending on the PS/2 controller... hotplugging a PS/2 keyboard or mouse can and will short out your motherboard... permanently.
Do not connect/disconnect your PS2 devices (mouse/keyboard) when the computer power is on... or you WILL be diagnosing an entirely new problem... a dead motherboard.
C.
I'll second that, the old Apricot's of the early 90's were especially susceptible to this. My boss at the time had one delivered and he forgot to plug in the mouse before he turned it on for the first time, he plugged it in as DOS was booting and the machine went dead... Apart from DOA's that was the quickest time to a support call I've seen :-P Some modern machines are more resilient, but not all... -- David Wright Wright Information Systems Europa Telefon: +49 819 399 7762 Fax : +49 819 399 7763
Thanks for the promptness!
And for the advice too... I promise I won't try to unplug the PS 2 again, I
was just wearing my "system tester hat" at that time :D
To answer Gerhard's question, yes, the mouse is plugged in and works
correctly. I can click on the Username and Password fields or I can Shutdown
the system.
-mw
On 1/25/06, David Wright
Am Mittwoch, 25. Januar 2006 14:28 schrieb Clayton:
Both messages are repeated if I brutally disconnect the PS2 connector and I plug it back.
Ouch! That's a good way to blow up your motherboard. PS/2 connectors are not hotplugable - it's NOT part of the PS/2 specification. Depending on the PS/2 controller... hotplugging a PS/2 keyboard or mouse can and will short out your motherboard... permanently.
Do not connect/disconnect your PS2 devices (mouse/keyboard) when the computer power is on... or you WILL be diagnosing an entirely new problem... a dead motherboard.
C.
I'll second that, the old Apricot's of the early 90's were especially susceptible to this. My boss at the time had one delivered and he forgot to plug in the mouse before he turned it on for the first time, he plugged it in as DOS was booting and the machine went dead... Apart from DOA's that was the quickest time to a support call I've seen :-P
Some modern machines are more resilient, but not all...
-- David Wright Wright Information Systems Europa
Telefon: +49 819 399 7762 Fax : +49 819 399 7763
-- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com
Mello wrote:
Thanks for the promptness! And for the advice too... I promise I won't try to unplug the PS 2 again, I was just wearing my "system tester hat" at that time :D To answer Gerhard's question, yes, the mouse is plugged in and works correctly. I can click on the Username and Password fields or I can Shutdown the system.
I don't have an Aha! solution for you... but maybe some additional troubleshooting? I'm curious what the result could be since I've also had a problem like this in the past with keyboards and Linux. Never did solve it, but that was a long time ago... Ummm what about things like Numlock light/Caps Lock light? Not a solution, but I'm curious if they still light up if you press the respective keys. What does /proc/bus/devices tell you? Is the keyboard still correct there? C
I guess the keybord is correctly reported in the file but I'm sure I will
need additional help.
Kobold:~ # cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0010 Vendor=001f Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="PC Speaker"
P: Phys=isa0061/input0
H: Handlers=kbd event0
B: EV=40001
B: SND=6
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=ab41
N: Name="AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio0/input0
H: Handlers=kbd event1
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=4 2000000 3802078 f840d001 f2ffffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0005 Version=0000
N: Name="ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
H: Handlers=mouse0 event2
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103
Thanks,
-mw
On 1/25/06, Clayton
Mello wrote:
Thanks for the promptness! And for the advice too... I promise I won't try to unplug the PS 2 again, I was just wearing my "system tester hat" at that time :D To answer Gerhard's question, yes, the mouse is plugged in and works correctly. I can click on the Username and Password fields or I can Shutdown the system.
I don't have an Aha! solution for you... but maybe some additional troubleshooting? I'm curious what the result could be since I've also had a problem like this in the past with keyboards and Linux. Never did solve it, but that was a long time ago...
Ummm what about things like Numlock light/Caps Lock light? Not a solution, but I'm curious if they still light up if you press the respective keys.
What does /proc/bus/devices tell you? Is the keyboard still correct there?
C
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Additionally: Kobold:~ # cat /proc/bus/input/handlers N: Number=0 Name=kbd N: Number=1 Name=mousedev Minor=32 N: Number=2 Name=evdev Minor=64 N: Number=3 Name=joydev Minor=0 Maybe it's relevant that there's no "Minor=..." in the line containing "kbd".
Some modern machines are more resilient, but not all...
You can't count on it always working on a modern machine either. One of the developers where I work learned that lesson the hard way. He had a relatively new AMD64 and was having probs with the keyboard. He unplugged/plugged a couple times. A told him not to do that. He argued that he does it all the time at home... and to prove his point did it one more time... poof... no more computer. He got away with it the first 3 times, but the 4th time was too much. The IT guy was not impressed when he had to replace the motherboard. :-P C. PS sorry for sending to you directly David... dang GMail.... :-(
Hi Mello, On Wednesday 25 January 2006 08:13, Mello wrote:
Hi, the keyboard (a rather regular 104-keys kbd) has been working fine until yesterday, no relevant changes have been done in the meantime. It also operates correctly with the BIOS screen and at Grub prompt so I'm pretty sure the hardware is fine. It just stops completely at the login prompt. The PC can be reached via ssh, even the HTTP server works fine. <snip>
Looks good up to this point.
Both messages are repeated if I brutally disconnect the PS2 connector and I plug it back.
Please be aware this can destroy your mainboard. PS2 is *not* hot-pluggable. Shut down completely when you need to unplug/replug/verify PS2 connections (mouse + keyboard.)
YAST2 doesn't report any issues. Keyboard is configured correctly in there.
Any advice on how I should proceed?
Boot to run level 3, log in as root and run SaX2 ("sax") from the command line. Try reconfiguring your keyboard *and* mouse (also PS2?) settings there. If that doesn work: If this problem didn't appear after a YOU update or the installation or removal of some software, and... if you didn't write/run any errant scripts or command line sequences... it might be worth booting into rescue mode and verifying the integrity of your filesystem... I've had corruptions of that sort cause strange symptoms like this, too. hth & regards, - Carl
Thanks Carl for your suggestions.
I've tried booting to run level 3 and started sax2 from there. Everything
went fine although there was nothing to change, I could test the keyboard in
the test field. I moved things a bit just to be able to save the
configuration.
After saving I went into X (startx) and I could operate and type normally.
...
reboot
...
Same issue, keyboard stops at login screen :(
Will follow your advice and try booting into rescue. I'll post a message to
the alias if I discover any useful info.
Thanks,
-mw
On 1/25/06, Carl Hartung
Hi Mello,
On Wednesday 25 January 2006 08:13, Mello wrote:
Hi, the keyboard (a rather regular 104-keys kbd) has been working fine until yesterday, no relevant changes have been done in the meantime. It also operates correctly with the BIOS screen and at Grub prompt so I'm pretty sure the hardware is fine. It just stops completely at the login prompt. The PC can be reached via ssh, even the HTTP server works fine. <snip>
Looks good up to this point.
Both messages are repeated if I brutally disconnect the PS2 connector and I plug it back.
Please be aware this can destroy your mainboard. PS2 is *not* hot-pluggable. Shut down completely when you need to unplug/replug/verify PS2 connections (mouse + keyboard.)
YAST2 doesn't report any issues. Keyboard is configured correctly in there.
Any advice on how I should proceed?
Boot to run level 3, log in as root and run SaX2 ("sax") from the command line. Try reconfiguring your keyboard *and* mouse (also PS2?) settings there.
If that doesn work:
If this problem didn't appear after a YOU update or the installation or removal of some software, and...
if you didn't write/run any errant scripts or command line sequences...
it might be worth booting into rescue mode and verifying the integrity of your filesystem... I've had corruptions of that sort cause strange symptoms like this, too.
hth & regards,
- Carl
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participants (4)
-
Carl Hartung -
Clayton -
David Wright -
Mello