trouble trying to install with a wireless keyboard

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

Hi, the other week I installed gentoo using a wired USB keyboard and had no issues. Everything installed fine, got HAL running and got the correct policy going to use my wireless keyboard and mouse.

Sadly I have to start again after the hard drive failed, the only problem is I no longer have access to a wired keyboard. The keyboard allows me to type at the "boot: " prompt, but when it comes to selecting keymap it doesn't respond.
Someone on #gentoo/freenode suggested enabling legacy support in my BIOS, but after looking round my BIOS the only mentions of USB are all enabled.

The box is a Shuttle XPC Glamor and the keyboard and mouse set Logitech. I'll have to check exact versions when I get home.

Am I absolutely doomed till I can get my hands on a wired keyboard?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 8:53 am Post subject:

Jimmothy,

Welcome to Gentoo.

First, it should just work. The system can't tell you have a wireless keyboard, it looks like a normal USB keyboard.

I have an issue with mine - its not the keyboards fault. My display has a USB hub and the receiver is plugged in there but if I switch the PC on before the display, the keyboard won't work. Of course, I can't then test other things.

Its just possible its a bug with your liveCD. Which liveCD are you using ?
You can use any CD/DVD that will give you a root shell to install Gentoo as the CD only provides the tools - none f its code goes into the install.

Try a different liveCD.

Not having a wired keyboard in a cupboard somewhere is a bad idea. The batteries for the wireless keyboard will only run out when you don't have any replacements and can't get them quickly.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

genblood · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:26 am Post subject:

When you have the logitech connected during the boot can you get into the systems bios setup?
If not you need to sync the keyboard and try again. Most likely its a sync issue during boot up.
If you still can't get it to work replace the batteries. An make sure the part that connects to your
pc is closer. I've had issues with older logitechs not syncing due to low charge on the batteries.
_________________
General Blood ..

Gentoo 2008.0 AMD Phemon X4 9850+ 8GB DDR2 1066
MSI K9A2 Platium Mother Board ATI 4830 PCI-e 512MB
1 Blu-Ray Drive
4 sata WD 500 GB drive

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:37 am Post subject:

Jimmothy,

Try SystemRescueCD, or any magazine cover mounts you have lying around.
Without an operational keyboard, its a bit difficult to download and burn a CD.

With other CDs, you may need one extra step, right at the start

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

Thanks Genblood and NeddySeagoon, I'll plug the reciever in a few different ports, and then download the rescue CD via windows, or maybe knoppix?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:42 am Post subject:

Jimmothy,

You can do a 32 bit install from Knoppix. A 64 bit install needs a 64 bit kernel.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

Is it worth 64bit with quad core and 4gb ram?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:52 am Post subject:

Jimmothy,

Yes - its worth 64 bit with > 2GB of RAM as it avoids the memory mapping tricks a 32 bit kernel has to do to manage more RAM.
A 64 bit install should also allow you to use all 4G of RAM as the RAM previously 'hidden' behind the BIOS and PCI address space can be mapped above 4G. (Thats chip set dependant).

You also get more CPU registers. Lastly, you can use the whole 'width' of the CPU. You won't notice much of a speed improvement unless you run numerically intensive applications.

If you want to run 32 bit applications too, you need to use a multilib profile and enable 32 bit support in your kernel.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

Do I need the amd64 minimal iso for that? If so I'll add that to my list of images to try install from.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:51 am Post subject:

Jimmothy,

Any CD that provides a 64 bit kernel can install a 64 bit system.

SysremRescueCD provides both - you need to give it an boot option to load the 64 bit kernel. From memory, its rescue64
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

Jimmothy · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2010 Posts: 13 Location: UK

Neddy is right, the rescue CD does work to install from with the logitech wireless keyboard.
You can't type at the time of choosing your keymap but you can then edit /etc/conf.d/keymaps and run /etc/init.d/keymaps restart to have the correct one.
Also type bash to get a bash prompt on the terminal instead of zsh(?)

The rescue CD seems to have better hardware detection, but, unlike the gentoo minimal CD it doesn't auto-detect your network/internet. No biggie though, just run dhcpcd and hopefully that works for you.

The manual covers everything basically.

chucknorris2010 · n00b Joined: 09 Apr 2010 Posts: 1

try this it worked for me (boot: gentoo noload=usbhid)