USB Keyboard not resonding at login

[[h2o]]

Ok, I now there are quite a few topics on this, but I have read all (?) of these and none of these solved my problem.

I dual boot Gentoo (2.4.26-r10) with WinXP using the NT Bootloader as described in the FAQ.

When I have chosen to boot Gentoo Linux, I arrive at the login-prompt, and there it stops, since my keyboard is not responding.

This is when USB-keyboardcontrol is set to "Bios".
Chaning this to "OS" only makes me unable to use the keyboard at the NT bootloader, and thus makes me unable to even boot into Gentoo

I had these problems with the LiveCD as well (as USB Keyboard-control was set to "OS" before I started to mess around). Because when you arrive at the "Boot:"-prompt to boot to a different kernel, make memtest etc, I was unabke to write anything. When the default-kernel had loaded I could use the keyboard as usual.

My kernel weas compiled with all the USB-controllers I could find.

I believe my bios is a Phoenix-award.
Motherboard is an Abit A17. USB Keyboard is a Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard.

[originalbrownster]

Hi,
It looks like the necessary usb modules are not loading at boot time, you say you have added all the usb controller support you could find, it's worth knowing did you compile them as modules or 'in' the kernel?
Anyway a short while ago they made a change in gentoo that might be the cause, see this announcement:
http://www.gentoo.org/news/20041113-kernels.xml
In effect you can tackle the problem in one of two ways, the preferred way being adding required modules to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
Which modules do you need? Well here's a little trick, the livecd is very good normally at recognising your hardware and you can use this to your advantage by seeing what modules it's loaded. Boot back into a chroot environment from the live cd then do an 'lsmod' and note the output, no doubt you will see usb entries so you'll know what your system actually needs.

The other way is to install coldplug and setting it to the default runlevel. I use the former method.

HTH

OB.

[racoontje]

Use a PS/2 keyboard to see if the correct modules are loaded.

[[h2o]]

[originalbrownster]

Hi,
Personally I would use a 2.6 kernel unless you have a specific reason not to.

How old is the live cd you booted from? From the handbook it seems the default boot is a 2.6 kernel:

[[h2o]]

Hi.
Compiling with genkernel made it all worked (except internet which died, but I guess that will be easier to fix).

I will recompile the kernel another time, and then I will follow your directions and compile stuff as modules.
Thank you for your time.

[axeblind]

I'm having a similar problem. I turn on the PC, the lights flash on the keyboard and the optical mouse LED is lit. But into Gentoo's boot process the keyboard lights and mouse go dead. Once the KDM loggin window appears, half the time the keyboard and mouse will be unresponsive, but will come allive if I wait about 20 seconds.

I'm running kernel 2.4.27. I've got all the USB HID stuff compiled into the kernel. Once they come back on line, the system runs beautifully - this is really just a minor inconvenience. I'm hesitant to move to kernel 2.26 since I've heard it doesn't support SATA w/ hardware RAID striping very well. (Asus A7N8X delux mobo - ask me how I got the install to work! That's whole other thread.) Anyway, here's a clip of dmesg in which the keyboard & mouse go out:

[axeblind]

Okay sorry! That wasn't the last several lines. These are, and probably point to the cause of the problem: