keyboard freeze in Suse 9.1
 

I have just done a fresh install of Suse 9.1. I reformatted the hard drive before install. Previously I was running Suse 9.0.

I now have a strange problem. I will be typing away and the keyboard will suddenly stop working. The mouse works, and I can do mouse related activities (open and close windows, start applications etc) but the keyboard just refuses to work.

I've tried running a terminal window, the keyboard still won't work. I've tried CTRL-ALT-F2 to go to console mode but get no response.

Now for the crazy part. If I hit CTRL-SHIFT-F2 the keyboard starts working again!! Then I can use my computer fine.

This is an intermittent problem. I havent seen any pattern with it yet.
Specifically
It happens when I'm on battery power and when I'm on AC
It happens with ACPI and APM turned off and with them both turned on.

1) Has anyone seen this before? Any idea why it happens?

2) What does CTRL-SHIFT-F2 do? And why does it start my keyboard working again?

My setup is

Toshiba laptop Satellite 2410
Suse9.1
KDE

Any response appreciated

J

Usually
CTRL + SHIFT + F2 switches to the second desktop (as you know you can have multiple desktops).

You may take a look on:
~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals
to see what is the effect of a keyboard combination in KDE.

I suggest you perform an YOU (Yast Online update). Perhaps this can help.

I know there were some keyboard realted problems with Satilite Laptops
You may take a look on:
http://www.thorstenhaas.de/toshiba2410/
http://www.buzzard.org.uk/toshiba/

This helped me with my old Satelite.

As far I know in the SuSE Kernel the Toshiba Laptop support is compiled as module.
I have heard some people say, taht compiling it into the kernel (so no as module) fixed
their problems. I could not verify this on my own.

I experience the same thing and have all the patches for my system. I haven't found a solution for it.

The strange bit is that the keyboard freezes but the mouse is fine... I then have to graphically log out of KDE and log back in again. Annoying.

Hi JordanH,

does those freezes happen with a particular Application (e.g. Netscape or OpenOffice) ?

Do you have 3d or 2d acceleration enabled ?
If yes, can you disble them and see if freezes happen.

Somehow I think that it might be the graphic card (actualyl the driver) that is locking up your System.

If nothing helps, can you try to run with a framebuffer device instead the driver of your card ?

(See last posting in:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=189158
It's a short description about how to set-up the framebuffer device)

BTW: Do you have a nVidia Card ?

Vlad,

I had a look at the KDE configuration file you mentioned. Ctrl-Shift-F2 is mapped to "Switch to Desktop 12" or something similar!!

I'm starting to doubt if its a KDE thing at all. The problem has occured during boot; I was trying to hit 'F2' to see the boot log instead of the splash screen, and it wouldnt work. After hitting the ctrl-shift-f2 combination, the 'F2' key then worked.

However, I have seen the keyboard lock up in the 'login' screen, but still work in the Grub boot loader thingy.

I performed an online update (which I had never done before). I downloaded the NVidia video driver, as well as all the other 'suggested' fixes. The problem is still occuring though.

The problem happens with pretty much any application I think. I've seen it happen in OpenOffice, IntelliJ IDEA, Mozilla... once it happens it effects every application.

JordanH.... does hitting ctrl-shift-f2 fix the problem?

I might try this frame buffer thing and see if its any better

John,

it looks like the nVidia driver. nVidia drivers are known to freeze the System. Although I have to admit that the ones from
ATI are not that much better.

I suggest that you boot without the splash screen.

Log-in as root and open /boot/grub/menu.lst

add to the kernel you are booting splash=0 as boot option. Below an Example
......
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SuSE 9.1 (2.6.5-7.95-default)
kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 vga=0x31a splash=0 desktop resume=/dev/hda9 showopts
.......

you may also try (do not enter in the menu.lst file. Justy enter at the options line in the boot screen) as boot options
acpi=off noapic
maybe also
pcii=noacpi

and see if this helps.

Try also to disable 3D acceleration and see if this helps.

You may also try following:

Take a look on your: /etc/X11/XF86Config

Find there the Device Section
(Section "Device")

Take a look for the AGP option
Option "NvAGP"
Change this Option to Off. So it should look like:
Option "NvAGP" "0"

Hi All,

Sorry for my delayed response. I didn't see this thread continue collecting posts...

Yes, I am using an NVidia card. GeForce 2 IIRC. I have implemented the proper NVidia drivers...

No, ctrl-shift-f2 does not fix the problem. :( Unfortunately. The whole keyboard is locked until the X server is restarted. I still have control of the mouse and can graphically logout... the X server resets, NVidia splash screen and then we are back in action. My other alternative to this is that I ssh to the box and kill off the X processes... uh... it's been a long while so i don't remember which exact one.

Fingers crossed, it has been a week since this happened... maybe updates to my system have corrected the problem.

hahahahahaahaha

Wouldn't you know it? After I typed my previous message about this event not occuring anymore, it happened TWICE tonight!!! Someone out there in computer land is having their way with me.

Both times my keyboard froze while using the latest version of aMSN (0.92?) under KDE. Firefox 0.8 was also sitting idly-by but I wasn't actively surfing.

Ok... I froze my keyboard again. Again, I was using aMSN. Me thinks that may be the cause.

I experience similar problem with 9.1: sometimes the keyboar freezes (mouse is still working fine). I have a regular ps/2 logitech keyboard. Sometimes it happens during boot. In this case all three keyboard leds (NumLock, CapsLock and ScrollLock) are on.

Physicall plugging out and pluggin in the keyboard fixes the problem (I know, I know...)

I have definitely narrowed the problem down to aMSN on my system.

I have been seeing this at regular intervals also, but no combination of keys seems to revive the system. Visual Cadd under Codeweavers Wine is almost guaranteed to bring keyboard to a total halt. The comments about the video adapter are interesting, since I'm running an Nvidia FX5500. This problem has persisted across the last (2) officially released drivers (6106 and 6111), but I've not seen anything which convincingly points to the graphics card as the root cause.

I'm more inclined to think this is a KDE or XFree86 issue. If I force a console change by logging in from another box and doing, e.g. 'chvt 2', the keyboard is active at the console prompt. This suggests that the low-level functions are operating.

Like others, if I quit KDE the keyboard becomes active again under kdm.

Steve

I'm also having the same problem. Though I am not using an NVidia card And don't think that it graphical since it was locked up on me while I was in other terminals. And as of for aMSN I don't use that. And as of for updating, I am completely updated. Also, the problem has presented itself in KDE, Gnome, regular terminals. But my problem is a little words then the rest of you all... I have to actually reboot my computer to get the keyboard working again...Any other Ideas that anyone has would be helpful to those of us suffering!

SuSE 9.1
Toshiba Satelite. 1405-S151


Thanks,
TheDrew

Perhaps y'all are right... here are some syslog messages from the latest occurence.

Me also
 

I have a Toshiba M15-S405 which is behaving similarly. SuSE 9.1 fully updated with patches.

Some other observations:

1. Occasional hangs during boot (around 19 in the count down)
2. Keyboard freeze is intermittent, no specific application appears to be the culprit
3. I am using the Nvidia supplied drivers built per thei nvidia web site
4. I've not tried the F2 trick, Ctrl Alt Backspace does not work to shut down X

The freezes are occuring daily but I have insufficient time to do a detailed diagnosis.
Any hints welcome!

ted

Quick update
 

I tried the Ctrl Shift F2 and it worked. Next time it freezes I'll try other Ctrl F*
combinations, I have 4 desktops so if selecting a non existing desktop free's it that will be
an extra datapoint.

ted

I am having the same problem as well. I don't use MSN and haven't been in any type of Office application.
I don't use an Nvidia card either. I do have 3D enabled, however the issue seems to happen even when I disable it. I can't seem to find anything in any log file either, although I'm not sure which one to look in (boot and syslog appear okay).

If any of you Guru's out there want some info I'd be happy to test things out.

800 Mhz Athlon
Giga-Byte GA-7ZX
VIA KT133
512 Meg RAM
VooDoo 3000 Video
Toshiba SD-R1002 CD-R/RW/DVD Drive
hda: ST320414A, ATA DISK drive (20 Gig) Reiser
hdb: ST38641A, ATA DISK drive (8 Gig) Reiser
MS Optical Mouse
MS Ergonomic Keyboard

I get any other info that might help. Let me know.

I am also patched to the current on all but the kernel.

Thanks

This is a Toshiba bug in the 2.6 kernels. I haven't found a patch for it yet. Another thing I have noticed to start making the keyboard work again is to retype the last letter you entered, (or last couple). That should also unlock it. I have a Toshiba Satellite 4210 and experience the same problem.

Well I did some digging around this AM and came upon this:

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/1...bd-bounce.html

I'm not sure if it applies to more recent versions of if will cause a problem if you install it on the more recent, but I guess some of you may want to try it if you have a Toshiba.

BUT, I don't think all of the people posting here are using Toshiba exclusively.
I am not for one.

Hmmm... The only components that might be related to Toshiba in my computer *might* be the CD/DVD rom's... however... I doubt it. I don't think I've ever purcahsed anything Toshiba.

I have the same problem with SUSE 9.1 on an acer TravelMate 630 notebook.
GRAPHIC CARD: Nvidia GeForce™ FX Go.
The problem appears while working with konqueror or on konsole (kde-shell).
Any suggestions?

thnx

I reported the problem to SuSE support, who suggested that I remove the 'desktop' token from the kernel parms set by grub. Apparently, this setting affects the scheduler by slowing down the system timer interrupt rate. Some hardware does not like the default setting.

I'm pleased to say that this has completely solved the problem! May be worth trying.

Steve

I am using a Fujitsu Lifebook N5010 laptop, and get this same problem occasionally. My laptop has an ATI mobile graphics card in it, and I'm using the stock SuSE 9.1 driver. There is a supplementary update that I tried on my previous install, that caused great havok, and seemed to increase the frequency (if that's possible) of the freeze-ups.. Though, I'm starting to wonder if that's the case, as a clean install is now having the same problems.. :(

Mine often varies, and frequently the mouse also freezes (hard lock), and the cpu fan comes on full blast (I've seen this freeze while using the machine and gkrellm reports 100% CPU usage on CPU1 (3ghz HT processor) the moment before it actually freezes...)

I can't seem to pinpoint the cause of my lockups either, but it's obviously quite irritating.

It's already frozen solid 3 times today alone, which is pretty ridiculous...

[Edit]: It appears that my laptop DOES have a Toshiba-MK6021GAS HDD in it. Perhaps some problem with this drive creates some sort of 'kernel panic'?

That looks promising. How is Grub configured in SuSE? I usually modify /etc/grub.conf in RedHat/Fedora... however, the grub.conf format in SuSE is foreign to me. Where are the kernel parameters set?

Here is my current/default grub.conf

** please excuse any typo's as I did not cut/paste.


EDIT: Answered my own question.
For the record, grub configuration in SuSE 9.1 is stored in /boot/grub/menu.lst

The pertinent file is /boot/grub/menu.lst. Find a line which looks like:

root=/dev/sda2 vga=0x31a desktop splash=silent resume=/dev/sdb3 showopts

and remove the word 'desktop'. After you restart the system, you will be running with a lower timer interrupt rate (I think it's 1000Hz. --> 100Hz., but that's from memory).

Thanks. I figured that out once I found the proper file. I'll give her a run tonight when I finally make it home. I didn't get to try it last night as we were partying it up.... Go CANADA. ;-) Gotta love World Cup Hockey.

I'm using SuSE 9.1 on my Toshiba for a few weeks, and had been dogged by this problem. Thanks Steve for bringing this solution to attention, which seems to have worked so far!

Kaustuv