No keyboard on laptop after bootloader! Cannot type login password

Hi,

I was going through the installation of bumblebee (SDB:NVIDIA Bumblebee - openSUSE Wiki) on my OpenSUSE 13.2 system when I executed these commands:

Check /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf and make sure the line “blacklist nouveau” is present (even if you plan to use nouveau driver). If not, add it and as root, run:
mkinitrd

after mkinitrd I rebooted and now I have absolutely no access to the keyboard on the login screen, only mouse touchpad. USB mouse also doesn’t work.

So basically I get to the login screen, but there is no way to type my password.
I have tried recovery kernel option, no success.

There is also a Win8 on the laptop, but I doubt it can access linux partition.

What do I do now? Any clue? I might be able to boot off of a usb (although last time the “live” Opensuse USB only allowed to install the OS and not run it in “live”). How can I undo this damage?

Edit:
OK, got access to console login via mouse from the login screen and keyboard works there. I’m trying to remove the added blacklist element. However, that blacklist file contains suspiciously many entries…

I still need help trying to figure out. I don’t know what direction to look.
I’m guessing something with xorg (?), but I wasn’t able to reconfigure with

X -configure

as it gives an error:

The number of screen doesn't match the number of devices found.

I assume this is to do with the 2 graphics cards in the laptop, however I already tried to remove the nVidia driver. No success.

I assume your keyboard works in the grub boot screen menu. Assuming that did you try booting to run level 3, login as regular user, and then switch to root permissions and use an editor such as ‘mc’ to edit the 50-blacklist.conf file ? (removing the nouveau black list entry) ? Then exit the edit, and with root permissions command a reboot with the ‘shutdown -r now’ command and test ?

If you don’t know how to boot to run level-3, then say so and may of our forum users can help there.

If you don’t have ‘mc’ or an editor you like, then if you have your laptop connected to the internet via a wired connection you can install such (with root permissions) by a simple ‘zypper in mc’ .

It is supposed to have many entries. Just remove the noveau entry that you added.

I have already tried removing the new entry in the 50-blacklist.conf, but it doesn’t make a difference. The problem is still present.

Current situation:

  • I have set up passwordless & automatic login to my user in the GUI
  • I do arrive to the desktop
  • laptop touchpad works, USB mouse doesn’t
  • Keyboard doesn’t work in the GUI, but I have limited functionality with virtual keyboard
  • if I switch to tty, keyboard works
  • 2 buttons work on the keyboard in the GUI: Fn+F7=> blocks touchpad, Fn+F6 => Dims screen
  • Change keyboard layout etc has no effect in system setting. I cannot type anything in the test fields.
  • I have upgraded my system via some help on IRC, however now my network wont connect with wicd for some reason.

Really, why does the keyboard work in tty and not in X ???>:(

Check also your BIOS settings wrt USB. Do you have any custom settings applied there ? Possibly ‘auto’ or ‘legacy’ more for keyboard/usb ?

I also have windows 8 in dual-boot and keyboard works there, also as said the keyboard works in tty. So I don’t really think its an issue with that.
Regardless, I’ll go make a check of it. Also I keep searching, but it is becoming quite frustrating frankly speaking.

It quite possibly is not a BIOS issue. I would not have suggested it if I had not encountered myself a case where a BIOS setting had X not working in Linux for the USB, but it still worked for Windows and it still worked in a terminal mode.

Having typed that, I think it a pretty rare/unlikely possibility. But it should be checked.

Another piece of useful information that I could not find in this thread … was did you advise us yet as to whether this works with recovery mode ?

ie in the Grub boot menu select “Advanced Options for openSUSE” > " openSUSE with Linux 3.16.xx.xxx=desktop (recovery mode) "

Does the keyboard / mouse work with that setting ?

Note the actual Linux version you need to select (and not the 3.16.xx.xxx=desktop in my example).

Re-reading the thread I see you note you tried the ‘recovery kernel’ . What do you mean by that ? Typically there will be four options in the advanced settings … one is the current kernel, and the second is the SAME kernel with the ‘recovery mode’ kernel boot codes. The 3rd will be a separate older kernel, and the 4th will be the SAME older kernel with the ‘recovery mode’ kernel boot options.

When you state ‘recovery kernel’ I do not know what you mean there.

Checked the BIOS, no related settings. And I think if it was there, the keyboard wouldn’t work in tty either.

I have tried a recovery kernel, the oldest one I have. No success.

I think there was some module blacklisted, deinstalled, corrupted or something. Can’t find out what.

I’m quite tired (and angry) now, but tomorrow I’ll try a reinstall of X. See if that makes a difference.

NOT in all cases. As noted - I have encountered such before.

This can also be a malformed ACPI issue.

It was years ago when I encountered this problem, and I confess the details are very fuzzy in my mind. Ultimately, I believe it was a BIOS upgrade that permanently solved this for me. I believe my temporary work around was to apply a boot code that is not in the nominal recovery mode list of boot codes.


   showopts apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe

where I see apm=off but I do not see an acpi specific boot code.

I think < not sure > I applied the boot code “noapic acpi=off” or possibly just “acpi=off”.

If one does look in the BIOS for a setting that could explain why the keyboard works in openSUSE Terminal mode and not in openSUSE GNU/Linux X window, it may not be in the USB settings … it could be in the power management settings. But note the ‘could’ as this is speculation on my part wrt the specifics of your PC.

Can you advise as to what hardware your PC is ? (ie motherboard for a desktop, and/or laptop model if a laptop). Possibly others have encountered the same and posted about it.

And of course this could be an issue completely different from APM/ACPI.

A couple of other ideas.

When you first blacklisted nouveau your post suggested you then ran “initrd” Did you ran same again after removing the blacklist?

Next, did you check any of the log files to see if they may have logged the reason why your keyboard did not function in the desktop GUI ? You can read such from run level 3 with a text editor or boot to a live DVD and do the same to examine log files on your hard drive.