Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 78818
usb keyboard, does not work with usb modules loaded
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:48:47 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020830 Description of problem: Compaq Presario 7000 series, usb keyboard. Keyboard does not work when usb modules are loaded. This causes installer to hang. Nousb option does not fix it. After installation with another ps2 keyboard nousb option works. But Caps lock causes keyboard to hang for sometime and keyboard tends to repeatedly enter keys even when im not pressing them. Another keypress is needed to stop it. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Do not pass nousb option. 2. Other problems with keyboard (with nousb option) occur randomly and on pressing CAPSLOCK 3. Actual Results: keyboard does not work. Or with nousb option many programs like mozilla, terms go haywire when enteing text. Expected Results: Keyboard should just work. Additional info: usb.c timeout messages occur when nousb option is not passed on boot.
Sounds like a kernel usb issue.
Accoording to an entry in another newsgroup, the problem is solved by using kernel 2.4.19 + a patch to 2.4.20-pre10. http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/pipermail/linuxers/Week-of-Mon-20021021.txt
Thanks for the info. Any idea exactly what is causing the bug? And is there a place i can get a patch from 2.4.18-14 to 2.4.20 (i'm on a dialup)
So... How I can install a Patch if I don´t have a Redhat working... Exist any param to put in initrd line of SYSLINUX.CFG? Or exist other boot.img with this solution? Thanks.
Yes it does seem to be a kernel usb issue. I was able to find a workaround for it. The solution was to compile the kernel with usbkbd.o (which follows HID boot protocol) instead of the generic hid.o driver. I tried this with the 2.4.20 (plain vanilla) kernel but it should work with other versions as well. The kernel documentation actually discourages the use of usbkbd.o and recommends hid.o "unless you know what you are doing". So i think there is a problem with the generic driver not correctly working with my hardware for some reason. Also i tried out a recent version of the knoppix bootable cd distribution. It seemed to detect and use my usb keyboard extremely nicely. But when i did a knx_hdinstall to install it on my harddive i found the exact same problem on bootup with the same timeout message and a dead keyboard. I dont know why when i boot from the knoppix cd it works fine but does not work when i use the installed version. So, atleast in the case of the Anaconda installer for RedHat linux, can you look into what you are doing differently from the knoppix cd for hardware detection? This will atleast let me install the packages even if i have to use a custom compiled kernel later on. Thanks
Requestor, please test with 2.4.18-26.
Created attachment 91043 [details] Kernel Log
I downgraded to RH 7.1 and installed 2.4.18-26.7.xcustom (built with hid.o). It gave the exact same problems as the other kernels. I've attached the kernel log for more information of the trial. From the syslog: kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout last message repeated 15 times The keyboard is dead as before.
Anyone tried RHL 9 on that thing? At least "nousb" should work during installs again.
V9 installs fine. I think it works because the default kernel of V9 is 2.4.20.
Hi, I just got hold of RHL9 cds. It still does not work, even with the nousb option. The installer hangs at the screen where it asks whether to check installation media. I'm thinking of modifying the redhat bootdisk with a kernel compiled with usbkbd.o and then try to install RHL9. rj