Wireless keyboard not working

I don't have one, so I can't verify this. Testers of alpha9 have reported that their wireless keyboard is not working, whereas it did in previous alphas.

Alpha9 is using kernel 2.6.29.4, alpha8 used an earlier 2.6.29.x kernel, and I didn't make many configuration changes so I don't see that as the most likely cause.

Forum member 'tasmod' reports:
"wireless keyboard and it doesn't work at the point of keyboard country entry"

Forum member 'Minnesota' also reported:
has wireless keyboard... can not enter a thing... hangs at request for language

These statements are not quite clear to me. Do you mean the "keyboard layout" dialog? This is followed by the "country locale" dialog. I presume you mean the first one.

And that really does puzzle me. I just can't see why that would be so. I don't see how my changes in 'rc.sysinit' would cause the wireless keyboard to stop working.

However, I wonder if the mouse setup affects the keyboard. I did make changes in 'rc.sysinit' in regard to the mouse. Previously, a ps/2 mouse was set to use the '/dev/psaux' device, whereas now both ps/2 and usb mice use the '/dev/input/mice' device. These involve different kernel drivers, and I'm wondering if the 'input/mice' driver gets to claim the mouse then it also affects the keyboard somehow. I'm clutching at straws here.

So, if you have a non-functioning wireless keyboard could you kindly do some troubleshooting for me. Plug in a normal keyboad that does work, start the PC. Do this:

# mp /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (or any text editor)
And comment out these two lines (lines 446 and 447):

else
[ "`cat /etc/mousedevice`" = "psaux" ] && echo -n "input/mice" > /etc/mousedevice

Then do this:

# ln -snf psaux /dev/mouse
# rm /etc/keymap

...that last one is so the dialog that asks for keyboard layout will run again on next boot.

Then reboot, of course you will need a pup-save so that the changes are remembered:

# shutdown

Change over to the wireless keyboard, then start the PC again.

Does your keyboard now work? If yes, you may then have to do some troubleshooting to get the mouse to work...

Previously, if you had a PS/2 mouse, then /dev/mouse was a symlink to 'psaux', and /etc/X11/xorg.conf had this line for the mouse protocol:

Option "Protocol" "auto" #mouse0protocol
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

However, now I am treating USB and PS/2 mice the same, with /dev/mouse a symlink to 'input/mice' and this line in xorg.conf:

Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2" #mouse0protocol
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

The problem was that I found the previous arrangement did not work properly with Xorg 7.4 as used in Ubuntu.

If your mouse doesn't work, then there is a problem with the "IMPS/2" protocol. Try "auto", if that fails, some research on the Internet will be required to find what works...

Let me know the results of all of this testing!

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Comments

Wireless Keyboard
Username: Greg
Think I edited the rc.sysinit file correctly as per instructions.. and same results. (mine is line 444-445, if that makes any difference) Apologize for lack of details of inactive wireless keyboard [b]AND[/b] wireless mouse are both inoperative.... Attached PS2 mouse and PS2 Keyboard function correctly as I have both the wireless and PS/2 attached at this time. That was the only way I could access Alpha9. To further clarify, mouse is actually a USB connected to USB port...and keyboard is true ps/s small connector. Mouse setup indicates...from the menu usb mouse. It is as if the wireless [b]box[/b] which is attached to the USB port is not detected or initialized at all. OH you will love this... tried ALPHA 9 on a very old different box...different brand of wireless mouse [b]WORKS[/b]... hummm, moved wireless keyboard over from new machine..no joy... so moved wireless mouse from OLD machine to new machine.. plugged it in and wallah it works... So ISSUE is with brand of wireless mouse and keyboard... Will experiment more.. I think I have the wireless keyboard that goes with wireless mouse from the old machine... Boils down to something not initializing or detecting the brand of wireless controller.

Re: Belkin wireless keyboard
Username: BarryK
"In an earlier pup in which it works, it would be useful to run 'lsmod' in a terminal and check what modules have loaded, then compare with alpha9. ...another stab in the dark! Thanks for your help with this.

lsmod 4.2.1
Username: Greg
"lsmod from 4.2.2 Post to long for blog...so two posts Module Size Used by snd_pcm_oss 40992 0 snd_seq_dummy 3844 0 snd_seq_oss 31360 0 snd_seq_midi_event 7168 1 snd_seq_oss snd_seq 47952 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event snd_mixer_oss 16640 2 snd_pcm_oss snd_via82xx 27160 1 gameport 13832 1 snd_via82xx snd_ac97_codec 97952 1 snd_via82xx ac97_bus 1920 1 snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm 73736 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec pcspkr 2944 0 snd_timer 22276 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm snd_page_alloc 10376 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm snd_mpu401_uart 8064 1 snd_via82xx snd_rawmidi 23456 1 snd_mpu401_uart snd_seq_device 8204 4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi snd 52772 11 snd_pcm_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device i2c_viapro 8980 0 soundcore 7520 2 snd via_rhine 22920 0 mii 5504 1 via_rhine i2c_core 24592 1 i2c_viapro r8169 29316 0 via_agp 10240 1 agpgart 33584 1 via_agp fan 5508 0 evdev 11776 0 thermal 18716 0 button 8080 0 processor 32816 2 thermal fuse 48284 0 aufs 150040 1 nls_iso8859_1 4096 0 nls_cp437 5760 0 usbhid 29696 0 usb_storage 85952 0 ehci_hcd 33932 0 uhci_hcd 23820 0 usbcore 136560 5 usbhid,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd squashfs 46856 1

lsmod w9
Username: Greg
"had del siz to get undr 2k ch snd_pcm_oss snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq_oss snd_seq snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event snd_mixer_oss 14484 1 snd_pcm_oss serio_raw 4856 0 snd_via82xx 21964 0 gameport 10300 1 snd_via82xx snd_ac97_codec 101108 1 snd_via82xx ac97_bus 1492 1 snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm 70780 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec snd_timer 19160 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm snd_page_alloc 8668 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm snd_mpu401_uart 6420 1 snd_via82xx snd_rawmidi 20096 1 snd_mpu401_uart snd_seq_device 6720 4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi snd 55236 11 snd_pcm_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device pcspkr 2068 0 i2c_viapro 7432 0 soundcore 6464 1 snd via_rhine 20476 0 i2c_core 23556 1 i2c_viapro r8169 mii via_rhine,r8169 shpchp pci_hotplug shpchp via_agp agpgart via_agp fan parport_pc parport parport_pc evdev thermal processor thermal button fuse unionfs nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 usbhid usb_storage squashfs ehci_hcd 33568 0 uhci_hcd 21636 0 usbcore 136016 5 usbhid,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

module diffs
Username: BarryK
"Greg, there are some interesting differences. I wonder... in alpha9, could you blacklist the 'serio_raw' module in the Boot Manager then boot with the belkin wireless keyboard/mouse. I don't know why it would have any effect, but also blacklist 'shpchp' and 'pci_hotplug' -- pci hotplugging support was enabled when I configured the 2.6.29.4 kernel.

Blacklisting
Username: Greg
"NO joy. First time blacklisting..works slick. But no joy, even powered down reboot to verify all three on blacklist. G

Tags: woof