AVlinux and the squeeze ps2 input device bug

Shadow_7 · 03-10-2014, 12:45 PM

So I've been looking at avlinux, but so far it doesn't seem to like any of my hardware natively. None of the old tricks work, I guess I need some new ones.

The keyboard works. If I remove slim from /etc/rc?.d/ so it boots to the console.

The mouse works (in X) if I add the solitary section to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but not the keyboard in X.

Code:

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"
EndSection

External USB keyboard and mouse work if I do NOT add that section AND hotplug them AFTER starting X.

But I can't seem to get both keyboard and mouse working in avlinux with native keyboard and mouse (laptop) or PS2 mouse and keyboard on the desktop. I can hotplug the usb wireless mouse after starting X to open the task manager and kill the xfce4-session, but that's about as good as it gets. And once back on the console the keyboard of course works.

This seems to be an old bug with debian squeeze which appears to be the base layer for avlinux 6.0.3. Any tricks that I might have overlooked? This distro seems to have a nice default software bundle. And a fast interface, but without both keyboard and mouse working at the same time without hotplugging two additional devices, it's a little unusable.

Shadow_7 · 03-10-2014, 10:54 PM

Some hints on new tricks. The xinput command can be used to hotplug the keyboard. Not installed by default (if you clone the live image install) and I only have access with a hotplugged usb keyboard to install it. It seems that xinput and udev don't show the ps/2 keyboard to be hotplugged for at least one of my two main systems. Wheezy seems to have a /lib/udev/findkeyboards script missing in avlinux. So I guess I'll fiddle a bit more. I've already tried booting a wheezy kernel and starting X under it with the same fail, so probably not the kernel.

Shadow_7 · 03-11-2014, 11:18 AM

lsinput output relative to the keyboard in question:

/dev/input/event0
bustype : BUS_I8042
vendor : 0x1
product : 0x1
version : 43841
name : "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
phys : "isa0060/serio0/input0"
bits ev : EV_SYN EV_KEY EV_MSC EV_LED EV_REP

xinput debian sid lists the keyboard as:

AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=10

In avlinux it doesn't work and does not show up in xinput output (if I hotplug a USB keyboard so I can type in an xterm to check). Sadly only one usb keyboard in the house and it's primary machine and user are not this machine and user. Oddly the dell laptop of roughly the same vintage has the same specs from lsinput and xinput under debian wheezy. And all the same mouse and keyboard do not work in avlinux in X. USB mouse and keyboard do work if plugged in after X is started. And keyboard works if booting to a console login in avlinux.

It seems to be a udev or X issue, but copying rules (/lib/udev/rules.d/) relative to the devices between distros doesn't seem to do anything useful. And installing the wheezy versions of udev and libudev0 didn't help either, via dpkg -i. I guess migrating wheezy's X version is the next logical choice. But it would be nice to know with some degree of certainty what the culprit or missing link is in this picture. As it currently exists the live disc would basically be useless for this hardware.

Shadow_7 · 03-13-2014, 02:48 PM

I'm not entirely sure which thing got it working, but I'm able to boot avlinux on the laptop off of a usb stick with a functioning keyboard and mouse on an i1150 dell inspiron. I'll try to outline the post install steps (lots of chroot debian wheezy cross contamination).

Basically install the udev from debian wheezy.

# apt-get install --reinstall udev libudev0 libudev-dev

And dpkg -i the /var/cache/apt/archives/*udev*.deb files in the avlinux install. Then remove the display manager so it boots to console. NOTE: updates may undo this change.

# rm /etc/rc?.d/*slim*

Then clone /lib/udev/ from wheezy and /etc/X11/ from wheezy.

# rsync -aAXv /wheezy/lib/udev/* /avlinux/lib/udev/*
# rsync -aAXv /wheezy/etc/X11/* /avlinux/etc/X11/*

Adjusts paths as needed. Install other packages that suppliment the X + keyboard elements.

# apt-get install xvkbd xinput input-utils

It was after the xvkbd install that things worked on my already much fiddled with install, although I never booted that one directly. I tried to recreate the working system from a fresh clone of the live disc, and so far failed. But fiddling on the older copy on a USB stick worked for the laptop using the kernel that ships on the live disc.

Install xinit and create .xinitrc to "exec xfce4-session" and use startx to start the gui of avlinux.

$ startx -- -dpi 100 -nolisten tcp -depth 24

So the mouse and keyboard is working for me for avlinux. At the moment anyway. Perhaps not a solution for others, but a glimmer of hope and a place to start looking.