I've read through the forums here, and I've searched google, but I've yet to come up with a definitive solution to the problem of installing Slackware 9.0 while using a USB keyboard.

As you probably know from the other threads floating around, certain users with USB keyboards have trouble installing the distro (i.e. they can't). Is there any workaround for this? I'd use another keyboard but the PS/2 port is broken.

If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. I can't download a different distro until next month (bandwidth caps will be the death of me), so I'm open to any questions or comments.

Oh, and I have the single CD version, if that changes anything.

Thanks in advance.

Is it a clean install? or upgrade from like 8.1?

Clean install onto an unpartitioned hard disk.

Would I need to use boot/root disks for this?

hmm... to tell you the truth, slackware 9 detected my USB keyboard when booting, are you booting off the cd?

Yep.

It gives me the boot: prompt... after I press enter there, it initialises a lot of stuff, I get the AT keyboard timeout message, it then tells me that it detected my USB keyboard and immediately deregisters all USB devices (my keyboard being the only USB device I own).

Then I get the "choose appropriate keyboard mapping" prompt. If that's not rubbing salt into the wounds, I don't know what is.

Oh, just for the record the motherboard's an MSI BXMaster from about 1998/99 (bios as up to date as possible), with a completely screwed ps/2 keyboard port.

The keyboard's just a generic USB one.

yeah, i've gotten that AT timeout as well, not sure if i got the deregistering though, however when it comes to the keyboard map choosing, i've just been able to hit enter and it goes into login for the setup.. I assume you tried pressing enter, correct?

Heh, yeah.

The lights on the keyboard turn off on deregistration and there's no response.

i'd have to say i've NEVER had that problem... well, not with my keyboard, but my mouse, only that it'll work for awhile, then shutoff, but would work just fine when using a USB2PS/2 adapter. come to find out, i think its my chipset. if only my computer didn't have its 'accident' then i'd have working PS/2 ports. I'll look into this problem with a few other slackware using friends and get back to you, hopfully theres someone else who can help you with this issue.

Thanks, I'd appreciate it.

OK, well I downloaded Arch Linux 0.5 and I couldn't do anything once I got past the boot prompt either.

Funnily enough, the only distro I have that will work is Redhat 7.3, and I only have is disc 1 (which is scratched to hell).

It seems the gods of computing aren't happy about me. Must be the porn.

Hmmm...

I made up a bootdisk (usb.i) and the rootdisks (install.1 and .2) with rawrite, but my floppy drive fails to read any disk at all. Is there a way to do this by CD?

Just out of curiosity what results do you get if you boot from the CD with bare.i with the noprobe or even the nousb options? I simply wonder because the keyboard obviously works to start off, and doesn't get taken out until the kernel actually boots.

In reply to the other question about using usb.i with a CD: Do you mean that you tried the usb.i kernel from Slack 8.1? I ask because I don't believe there is a kernel like this in 9.0 (I think this may be because the bare.i kernel, and probably the other kernels as well, are supposed to have usb covered). If the answer is yes, then I can tell you that you could use the 8.1 CD and boot from the usb.i kernel by simply typing usb.i at the boot prompt, and yes it would be possible to create a Slackware 9 install disk that booted from such a kernel, but it is quite a bit of trouble to make your own bootable install CD if you have never done it before.

I still find it odd how it doesn't get his usb devices, when I FIRST got slackware 9 on my system, i upgraded from 8.1 but then i also did a clean install and it got my usb devices, i can't understand how his devices are being deregistered..

I've found that you need to change the BIOS to reflect USB Keyboard support by BIOS instead of by OS. That does it for me.