Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 54993
Keyboard locks up on Dell Inspiron 5000
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:37:44 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) Description of problem: With my Dell Inspiron 5000 the keyboard periodically locks up. The system is not locked up as I can access it remotely over a network and the mouse still works. It will happen within a few minutes of booting up. I have tried the latest kernel version 2.4.9-7. This did not happen in RedHat 7.1. If I connect an external keyboard to the ps/2 port it has not locked up yet. I don't even have to be using the external keyboard. It appears the keyboard is locked as the LEDs all go dark and caps lock/num lock/scroll lock will not reactivate them. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install RedHat 7.2 on Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop. 2. Boot RedHat Linux 7.2 on Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop. 3. Use RedHat Linux 7.2 for a few minutes and the keyboard will lock up. Actual Results: The keyboard locks up. Expected Results: Nothing. Everything should work perfectly. Additional info: I can provide any other information necessary. The system is a Dell Inspiron 5000 with 384MB RAM, Pentium III 650. The only extra peripheral is a USB logitech optical wheel mouse.
I get the same here, except, even when I use an external keyboard I get the same problem. If its of any significance, it seemed to think I had a PS/2 mouse on, until I plugged the keyboard into the external ps/2 socket, and then it said I removed it. (This is kudzu)
I have a workaround now. I originally installed RedHat 7.2 with my Logitech USB Optical Wheel Mouse attached. With this configuration, gpm and XFree86 were both using my USB mouse only. The touchpad wasn't configured at all. I re-installed with the USB mouse detached (actually, I forgot to attach it) and now everything is good. I configured the mouse as a second pointer for XFree86 and kept gpm configured to use the touchpad and everything works. In my case, this seems to be a specific problem with USB mice and the internal keyboard. I have found a few messages using deja where people are having similar problems with versions of Mandrake.
This sounds like Bug #32533 revisited us again, only on different Dell model. The workaround applied by model DMI string, so it is not enabled for Inspirons. But it may be some other bug as well, so this is FYI. Processors: Do not mark any of these bugs as dupes, until there is a resolution for Inspiron specifically. By the way, in L600 case the "random" lockup was caused by a user's thumb dangling and touching the touchpad momentarily. It is hard to track, but it was actually deterministic.
I can't seem to see 32533. I do occasionally drag on the touchpad, but I also have figured out that at times the touchpad acts as if I double tapped it when I'm typing, even if my hands are nowhere near the pad. I've heard this being a problem due to the weight of certain keystrokes doing something to the pad making it think it was double tapped. It's entirely possible that this is what caused the problem. Right now with my workaround what ends up happening is where my mouse cursor is when this happens gets focus. If it's an icon on the panel then it launches that app. However, it only happens when I don't have the pad configured for use. Very odd.
Dell funny worked around in later errata kernels. If it still exists please reopen the bug