hello, good people.
this is not a new issue, but it's a continually annoying one, so i thought i'd bring it up in case someone knows an easy fix.
i am here at the office running a thinkpad in a docking station, with external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. the keyboard is attached via a usb adapter and mostly works fine.
when i use a plain old bog standard keyboard, all is well but for the fact that every so often, unpredictably as far as i can tell, it stops accepting input and the keyboard lights flash for a couple seconds, then it works again just fine. any characters typed in during that period, though, are lost.
this is not a problem when i use a trusty old ibm model m keyboard. here, the issue is different. as long as i'm in console mode, no X or framebuffer or anything running, all is well. but when X starts, no keyboard input is accepted unless and until i unplug the keyboard and plug it back in. then all is well. this is consistent across several model m keyboards i have tried, so it's not a keyboard or cord issue. something happens when it goes into graphical mode that makes it think it doesn't have a keyboard.
i suspect that there is a configuration switch somewhere that will fix this, but i can't find it. anyone know?
thanks, and i hope this wasn't terribly o/t.
On 05/21/2013 05:19 AM, dep wrote:
the keyboard is attached via a usb adapter
Does that mean all the keyboards are standard keyboards (round connector) that are connected via a USB-to-keyboard adapter? If so, do you have another one of those you could try?
Do the problems occur in any graphical environment, or only Trinity? What about with some other Linux running from a live CD?
Are you plugging the keyboards directly into the computer, or into the docking station? Are the problems the same either way?
said Dan Youngquist: | On 05/21/2013 05:19 AM, dep wrote: | > the keyboard is attached via a usb adapter | | Does that mean all the keyboards are standard keyboards (round | connector) that are connected via a USB-to-keyboard adapter? If | so, do you have another one of those you could try?
yup, and yes, i have, to the same effect.
| Do the problems occur in any graphical environment, or only | Trinity? What about with some other Linux running from a live CD?
i only have trinity aboard. though i suspect that it is more likely an X issue than a trinity issue -- no special reason for this belief, though.
| Are you plugging the keyboards directly into the computer, or into | the docking station? Are the problems the same either way?
into the docking station. shall try it the other way. hang on. okay, have rebooted. and when it is plugged in via usb to machine itself, the behavior doesn't exist with the ibm m keyboard. which narrows but does not eliminate the problem -- with it plugged into the docking station, the keyboard works fine in console mode, which is to say if i boot to a commandline, it behaves correctly. it is only when starting X (which comes up as tdm, of course) that i have to unplug and replug the thing.
On 05/21/2013 08:01 AM, dep wrote:
i only have trinity aboard. though i suspect that it is more likely an X issue than a trinity issue -- no special reason for this belief, though.
At this point it seems to me more like a hardware compatibility issue between the USB keyboard adapter and the docking station. Sometimes perfectly good devices just don't play nicely together with certain other devices in certain situations. (This assumes the other USB keyboard adapter you tried is identical, or at least uses the same chipset.) If you can try a real USB keyboard, or a USB adapter with a different chipset, I suspect the problem may disappear. Also, try a live CD of a different Linux -- different kernel, display manager, DE, etc. -- and see what happens.
said Dan Youngquist:
| At this point it seems to me more like a hardware compatibility | issue between the USB keyboard adapter and the docking station. | Sometimes perfectly good devices just don't play nicely together | with certain other devices in certain situations. (This assumes | the other USB keyboard adapter you tried is identical, or at least | uses the same chipset.) If you can try a real USB keyboard, or a | USB adapter with a different chipset, I suspect the problem may | disappear. Also, try a live CD of a different Linux -- different | kernel, display manager, DE, etc. -- and see what happens.
i would agree but for the fact that the aberrant behavior is not displayed until x starts. both keyboards work uneventfully in a linux text-based boot. not a hiccup. this suggests, if it does not prove, a configuration issue.
thanks. i'll live with it!
On 05/21/2013 09:42 AM, dep wrote:
i would agree but for the fact that the aberrant behavior is not displayed until x starts. both keyboards work uneventfully in a linux text-based boot. not a hiccup. this suggests, if it does not prove, a configuration issue.
If I understood you correctly, the problem occurs when the keyboard is plugged into the docking station, but not when plugged directly into the computer. To me, that screams hardware compatibility issue, not a software issue. Regardless, the more of my suggestions you try, the more data you'll have to help sort it out.
Dies the odd things happen when you use FVWM or just on TDE?
Nik
Am Dienstag, 21. Mai 2013 schrieb dep:
said Dan Youngquist: | At this point it seems to me more like a hardware compatibility | issue between the USB keyboard adapter and the docking station. | Sometimes perfectly good devices just don't play nicely together | with certain other devices in certain situations. (This assumes | the other USB keyboard adapter you tried is identical, or at least | uses the same chipset.) If you can try a real USB keyboard, or a | USB adapter with a different chipset, I suspect the problem may | disappear. Also, try a live CD of a different Linux -- different | kernel, display manager, DE, etc. -- and see what happens.
i would agree but for the fact that the aberrant behavior is not displayed until x starts. both keyboards work uneventfully in a linux text-based boot. not a hiccup. this suggests, if it does not prove, a configuration issue.
thanks. i'll live with it!
said Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp: | Dies the odd things happen when you use FVWM or just on TDE?
i don't use anything else. fwiw, they don't happen when i boot over to windows (which is on the machine solely because it was a preinstall, and with gparted i was able to shrink it down; then if i ever get rid of this machine i can nuke the linux partitions and resize the windows partition back; also, this one time to boot it to see if it breaks the keyboard, which it doesn't).
-
Dan Youngquist -
dep -
Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp