And now my keyboard has died...

My problems with openSuse 11.0 continue. I still cannot dual boot with Windows XP Pro, and had one more edit to try on /boot/grub/menu.lst when I discovered that my keyboard had died on me. I swapped it for a functional one from another PC and that too was as dead as a dodo after a reboot. I tried the first keyboard on another PC and it works fine so there is no hardware problem. Back with the original keyboard, it works fine when trying to select an OS from the grub login screen, but once opensuse is up and running then the keyboard is dead. I tried reinstalling openSuse 11 from DVD and this did not cure it.

Any suggestions for a newbie as to what to try next? Preferably mouse driven for obvious reasons!

ps2 or usb keyboard ?

Andy

Go to BIOS and enable USB Legacy Support for Keyboard & Mouse ( If it’s a USB keyboard )

It is a PS2 keyboard.

if it doesn’t work with a replacement keyboard,it could be a faulty ps2 header

Andy

Thanks, but this does not explain why the keyboard works fine when used at the grub OS selection screen, but is only disabled once openSuse is up and running. Surely this suggests that something in the OS is ignoring the keyboard rather than a hardware problem?

I could swear some BIOS’es had a PS2 Enable/Disable setting for something.

You didn’t accidentally disable the kbd service, did you? :slight_smile:

Did you try booting to run level 3 (ie a terminal mode), check if your keyboard works in run level 3, and if it does, run yast to configure your keyboard for X.

As I said at the beginning of this thread, I am a newbie to Linux. I have worked out how to boot openSuse 11 at runlevel 3 by typing ‘init 3’ at the Boot Options prompt in the grub login screen. This allows me to log in as either root or myself, but how do I then run Yast from the terminal (where my keyboard seems to work fine)?

P.S. When I run opensuse 11 direct from the DVD (as I am currently doing) the keyboard works fine, so there definitely is not a hardware malfunction.

There is no such option in my BIOS, so it was not accidentally disabled.

This allows me to log in as either root or myself, but how do I then run Yast from the terminal (where my keyboard seems to work fine)?

If you are logged in as root, then just type yast2 to launch console based version of yast.

Thanks I have done that but oldcpu’s advice was to configure my keyboard to run under X. I went to the hardware section of yast2 and then keyboard (which correctly identified that I was using a UK keyboard), but showed no obvious places to configure it for running under X. As a newbie I entered the ‘Expert’ section with some trepidation, but again found nothing obvious to change there.

As a “newbie” it might appear as arcane, but check the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf for a correct keyboard set of entries. After that, make the necessary changes to the X keyboard entries by running xorgconfig.
Have ready the information for your graphics card, or repeat the process of running xorgconfig until you get a proper GUI and proper keyboard operation.
Setting X parameters is far above yast2 and is done with xorgconfig or sax2, not the hardware section of yast2.

There is one other thing you might check; the validity of the parameter ModulePath in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Whatever it says, “/usr/lib/modules” or “/usr/lib/xorg/modules” or whatever, look at that path and check that it is a valid path to the X system modules directory.

If there is no valid path listed in your copy of xorg.conf, or if the path is valid but the entry is ignored because it is preceded with a #, set a valid path to the X system modules and activate them by removing the # from the front of the entry line.

Do this by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf as root.

I think I confused you by my stating “X”.

Just configure your keyboard such that it works with your GUI. Yast will give you many possibilities to choose from.

Finally I booted into runlevel 3 by entering the command ‘init 3’ at the grub boot options screen, and then logging in as root. My keyboard worked fine in terminal mode. I then issued the command ‘startx’ and KDE 4.0.4 appeared in all its glory and the keyboard was still working. However if I logged in as my usual self at run level 3 and then ran startx, the keyboard was dead in KDE and its applications. I tried running yast2 and sax2 as root to configure the keyboard, but there was nothing obvious to change. Sax2 had the correct keyboard type and all the other configurations were to do with which keys such as Num Lock were active at startup. Or have I missed something here?

A couple things here. …
a. at the grub menu, the “init” is superfluous, …a simple “3” would have sufficed.
b. its far better to log in as a regular user, and not root. Then if you need root permissions, run “su -c” for a specific command, or “su” to put that one terminal session on root.

This looks like a permissions problem wrt your keyboard functionality under X. Any idea how this happened?

Weeks or days ago, did you have successful X functionality for a while as a regular user, and then lost it ?

I’ve seen users cause this sort of weird anomalous behaviour before, by inappropriately running X as root, and then find out later it broke their regular user account access.

I don’t know of a fix.

Check your user settings using Yast2/Security and Users/User Management. Click on the entry for your user name and then click on edit. Look for anomalies, such as having the Disable User Login box checked.
Adjust your group memberships while you are at it.

My solution for all kinds of PAM problems is to set my primary group to root. That overcomes all kinds of permissions troubles.
Of course, if there is a PAM problem directly there are no easy fixes that I know of. It will take analysis by an expert in the proper functioning of PAM.
Checking the proper settings for PAM is accomplished using Local Security on the Security and Users pane.

Here is the keyboard section of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “kbd”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “gb”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Th only thingf I can see that is a little odd is that my keyboard has been identified as “microsoftpro” when in fact it is a Maltron one-handed keyboard, as I only have one hand that works. None of Maltron’s keyboards are listed in the Yast2 lists, but it is essentially a generic UK keyboard.

I also looked for a ModulePath section in this file and there was not one there! FWIW here is my entire xorg.conf file:

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2008-08-04T01:13:20+0100.

Version: 8.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005

Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users&gt;

Automatically generated by [SaX2] (8.1)

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

Section “Files”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/local”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/URW”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Speedo”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/PEX”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/kwintv”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/truetype”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/xtest”
FontPath “/opt/kde3/share/fonts”
InputDevices “/dev/gpmdata”
InputDevices “/dev/input/mice”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “dbe”
Load “type1”
Load “freetype”
Load “extmod”
Load “glx”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
Option “ZapWarning” “on”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “kbd”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “gb”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “mouse”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Option “Buttons” “9”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Name” “ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Option “CalcAlgorithm” “XServerPool”
HorizSync 31-38
Identifier “Monitor[0]”
ModelName “800X600@60HZ”
Option “DPMS”
Option “PreferredMode” “800x600”
VendorName “–> VESA”
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “GeForce 8800 GTS”
BusID “1:0:0”
Driver “nv”
Identifier “Device[0]”
VendorName “NVidia”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “800x600”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “800x600”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “800x600”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “800x600”
EndSubSection
Device “Device[0]”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Screen “Screen[0]”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Group “video”
Mode 0660
EndSection

As a newbie I find it rather odd that there is a warning not to edit the file, yet some here seem to be suggesting that I should!

As a newbie I find it rather odd that there is a warning not to edit the file, yet some here seem to be suggesting that I should!

Sometimes manual editing is necessary, but you should always make a backup of the existing file first. That way you can revert to it if things don’t work as expected.