Keyboard non-functional in X-Windows

mapkyca · External Since: Jul 17, 2007 Posts: 7

Folks,

I've been trying to work out what is going on here with no success.

Basically, since I've switched to using kernel 2.6 the keyboard (PS2)
stops functioning in X windows. It functions in the shell, and if I
kill X and restart sometimes it comes back.

When I press a key everything freezes for a couple of seconds but no
key appears.

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on?

Dances With Crows · External Since: Sep 16, 2006 Posts: 307

mapkyca staggered into the Black Sun and said:
> Basically, since I've switched to using kernel 2.6 the keyboard (PS2)
> stops functioning in X. It functions in the shell, and if I kill X and
> restart sometimes it comes back.
>
> When I press a key everything freezes for a couple of seconds but no
> key appears. Does anyone have any idea what is going on?

Nope. Which version of which distro are you using? Is your mouse PS/2,
or USB? Is there anything keyboard-related in X's logfiles or in dmesg?
The only time I ever saw something like this happen was years ago in
kernel 2.2.18-something, when I had a PS/2 keyboard plugged in without a
PS/2 mouse, and X didn't recognize the keyboard until the mouse was
plugged in.

--
I think I'll go hold my head under a bucket of vodka until I feel
better.
--localroger on kuro5hin.org, 06/26/2003
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

mapkyca · External Since: Jul 17, 2007 Posts: 7

On Jul 17, 6:34 pm, Dances With Crows
<danSPANceswithTRAPcr....TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote:

> Nope. Which version of which distro are you using? Is your mouse PS/2,
> or USB? Is there anything keyboard-related in X's logfiles or in dmesg?
> The only time I ever saw something like this happen was years ago in
> kernel 2.2.18-something, when I had a PS/2 keyboard plugged in without a
> PS/2 mouse, and X didn't recognize the keyboard until the mouse was
> plugged in.

I'm using Debian 4.0 (latest stable).

Mouse works fine, but keyboard is still non-functional in X. It is
doing _something_ as a keypress gets a response (albeit to freeze X
for a few seconds)...

M

Dances With Crows · External Since: Sep 16, 2006 Posts: 307

mapkyca staggered into the Black Sun and said:
> On Jul 17, 6:34 pm, Dances With Crows wrote:
>> Nope. Which version of which distro are you using? Is your mouse
>> PS/2, or USB? Is there anything keyboard-related in X's logfiles or
>> in dmesg?
> I'm using Debian 4.0 (latest stable). Mouse works fine, but keyboard
> is still non-functional in X. It is doing _something_ as a keypress
> gets a response (albeit to freeze X for a few seconds)...

Is the mouse PS/2, or USB? What about the keyboard? What does
/proc/cmdline contain? What are the config stanzas for the mouse and
keyboard in xorg.conf ? Is gpm running? (Try turning it off if it
is... gpm is not supposed to interfere with X, but it may do that in
some circumstances.)

--
A project for developing fully automatically driven cars
(not just those misnamed auto-pilots) has been improved by your
explosive flatulence. --MegaHAL, trained on ASR
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

mapkyca · External Since: Jul 17, 2007 Posts: 7

On 21 Jul, 16:00, Dances With Crows

> Is the mouse PS/2, or USB? What about the keyboard? What does
> /proc/cmdline contain? What are the config stanzas for the mouse and
> keyboard in xorg.conf ? Is gpm running? (Try turning it off if it
> is... gpm is not supposed to interfere with X, but it may do that in
> some circumstances.)

The machine itself is a laptop with a wireless keyboard and mouse
combo. Internal keyboard and mouse is ps2, wireless mouse is usb
keyboard is ps2.

I have tried running the machine with just the internals and the same
problem exists even with just the internal keyboard running, or if I
plug a usb keyboard in.

Gpm is not running, /proc/cmdline is : auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro
root=305

Xorg config is:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
EndSection

.... anything obviously wrong?

M

Dances With Crows · External Since: Sep 16, 2006 Posts: 307

mapkyca staggered into the Black Sun and said:
> On 21 Jul, 16:00, Dances With Crows
>> Is the mouse PS/2, or USB? What about the keyboard? What does
>> /proc/cmdline contain? What are the config stanzas for the mouse and
>> keyboard in xorg.conf ? Is gpm running?
> The machine itself is a laptop with a wireless keyboard and mouse
> combo. Internal keyboard and mouse is ps2, wireless mouse is usb,
> keyboard is ps2.

Interesting. Is PS/2 keyboard support compiled as a module in your
distro? It's usually set to Y, but not always. It's called atkbd if
it's a module.

> I have tried running the machine with just the internals and the same
> problem exists even with just the internal keyboard running, or if I
> plug a usb keyboard in.

USB keyboards are supported by usbhid. If no keyboard works at all,
something very weird is happening.

> gpm is not running, /proc/cmdline is : auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro
> root=305

Although "auto" isn't a valid parameter for a vanilla kernel, there are
no real surprises here. The "auto" thing may be telling the distro
kernel to do hardware autodetection. This is something that can fail.

> Section "InputDevice"
> Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
> Driver "kbd"
> Option "CoreKeyboard"
> Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
> Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
> Option "XkbLayout" "gb"

GB layout? That shouldn't prevent the thing from working, although if
the keyboard isn't GB, it might cause weird keycodes to show up. Since
the thing works outside of X, it might be worthwhile to "dumpkeys >
keymap" and then see which map in /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/ has
the most matches.

> ... anything obviously wrong?

No. Is there anything weird about the keyboard or lack thereof in the
output from dmesg?

--
I went to edit my info to change "system administrator type dude" to
"xxxx star for hire", but all I got was a threat.
--MegaHAL, trained on Netizen's quotes file
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

mapkyca · External Since: Jul 17, 2007 Posts: 7

On Jul 22, 2:49 pm, Dances With Crows

> Interesting. Is PS/2 keyboard support compiled as a module in your
> distro? It's usually set to Y, but not always. It's called atkbd if
> it's a module.

The driver is built in.

> GB layout? That shouldn't prevent the thing from working, although if
> the keyboard isn't GB, it might cause weird keycodes to show up. Since
> the thing works outside of X, it might be worthwhile to "dumpkeys >
> keymap" and then see which map in /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/ has
> the most matches.

The keyboard is a GB layout, and it works absolutely fine in console
or as soon as X starts playing nicely...

>
> > ... anything obviously wrong?
>
> No. Is there anything weird about the keyboard or lack thereof in the
> output from dmesg?

Nothing I can see. The only messages about keyboard as saying that
they are detected...

Marcus