[SGVLUG] Grub/keyboard issue (USB?) [longish]

[Claude Felizardo]

On 9/6/05, Emerson, Tom <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:

[snip]


> The keyboard is a wireless keyboard [logitech] which I got at the swapmeet for $20 [includes a wireless optical mouse -- I later realized the reason it was so inexpensive was that it was a GREEK keyboard]  This is actually a USB/pseudo-ps/2 keyboard: it has a regular USB plug which is intended to be the primary connection, but also has a separate ps/2 mouse plug and a "dongle" converter to convert USB to PS/2 (!)  When plugged in as "USB", I cannot get to the BIOS screen [this is/was how I switched OS's -- swapped the boot order in the BIOS] so I generally use the ps/2 dongle.
> 
> --- dumb thought just entered my head ---
> 
> I *might* have the mouse & keyboard "plugs" backwards [i.e., plugged the mouse in the keyboard socket and vice versa] -- even though these are the "standard" green & purple plugs, I now have my system arranged such that I "feel" my way to the back to plug things in, so I can't see if I'm plugging the green plug in the purple socket...
> 
> I seem to recall that the system will "recognize" a device plugged in after-the-fact [though you really shouldn't "hotplug" ps/2 devices] but might not recognize a keyboard as a mouse or a mouse as a keyboard when first booted -- can anyone back up that theory?  [of course, I'll check once I'm home...]
> 
> In any case, during the install I tried to use it "as USB" (because I got GRUB working to actually boot windows from the "other" drive, so I didn't need to do the BIOS switheroo), but eventually gave up as I realized that "at grub boot time", USB might not be initialized -- long story short here is I didn't pay attention to which plug is which...
> 
> --- /dumb thought ---
> 
> regardless of the plug issue, there is that last tiny issue I alluded to: at "boot" time, within grub, is it even possible to use USB keyboards?  does this need to be added to "mkinitrd" [I did anyway as that is easy to configure in Suse -- added usbcore, hid, & ohci/ehci -- I think those are all I would need, right?]  Perhaps compiled directly in Grub? [is that possible?]  Or is there perhaps a BIOS setting I should look into (which might also help the fact I can't get the BIOS's attention during boot...)

I can confirm that USB mice and keyboard work perfectly fine at boot
including editing the BIOS settings.  At work, I recently installed
Mandriva LE 2005 (2.6.11-6) on a brand new Dell here and it works
fine.  Didn't think much about it at the time - it just worked.  No
dongles in use here though it does have the standard PS/2 ports which
are unused.   Works fine in windoze as well.   Didn't have to do
anything in the BIOS though it's possible that Dell had already made
any necessary configs.  I'll try to remember to check the next time I
boot.

btw, does anyone know if a Sun Blade-100 will boot w/o keyboard and
mouse?  Or do I need to get a USB based KVM switch?  Would be nice to
get rid of the extra keyboard and mouse.

oh, I'm still using LILO.  Don't notice anything special in my
/etc/lilo.conf file.  hmm, looks like something in /etc/modprobe.conf:

     install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe uhci-hcd; /sbin/modprobe
ehci-hcd; /bin/true

but again, the keyboard works fine in the bios config.

claude