Keyboard & Mouse freeze in Ubuntu 10.04!

LinusStallman · 05-30-2010, 02:05 AM

Hi.
I installed Ubuntu 10.04 yesterday. Both my keyboard & mouse are a ps2 connection. I have noticed that both have frozen without warning a few times. I then connected a spare USB mouse and that worked. The only fix I have found so far is to reboot. This is very inconvenient!

Note: Even the USB mouse froze once!

tredegar · 05-31-2010, 11:57 AM

Did you apply the updates? There are a lot.

Any useful messages in /var/log/messages or the output of dmesg ?

PS2 connections suggest your hardware is quite old. You can try some kernel boot options: noapic and nolapic come to mind:

Press e to edit when the grub boot menu comes up, scroll down to the (long) line that starts with linux cursor to the end of that line ( note: a "\" at the very end of a line means the line is too long to fit your screen, and continues on the next line ).
Enter a space, then the extra boot option(s).
Try one, the other and both together.

Quote:

The only fix I have found so far is to reboot.

You could also try unplugging them, then plugging them in again.

LinusStallman · 06-01-2010, 03:12 AM

I tried unplugging them and then plugging them back in. No luck.

I will try your other tips. Thanks.

Here are some of the most recent entries in messages that pertain to ps2:

Code:

May 31 21:05:27 Skynet kernel: [    0.502185] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
May 31 21:05:27 Skynet kernel: [   14.454150] input: PS2++ Logitech Wheel Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input4
Jun  1 08:28:28 Skynet kernel: [    0.502386] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
Jun  1 08:28:28 Skynet kernel: [   14.279516] input: PS2++ Logitech Wheel Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input4

LinusStallman · 06-02-2010, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

PS2 connections suggest your hardware is quite old. You can try some kernel boot options: noapic and nolapic come to mind:

Press e to edit when the grub boot menu comes up, scroll down to the (long) line that starts with linux cursor to the end of that line ( note: a "\" at the very end of a line means the line is too long to fit your screen, and continues on the next line ).
Enter a space, then the extra boot option(s).
Try one, the other and both together.

How do I save the changes I make? Would I hit Ctrl + b? How can I make the changes permanent?

tredegar · 06-02-2010, 12:33 PM

Yes, that's the one.

Whilst you are using grub's editor, you could remove the splash and quiet options, so you'll see the kernel messages as it boots - there might be something "interesting" that'll help you.

The edits you make this way are not permanent - they are just for this boot.

These are many other kernel boot options, it is worth taking a look at the (long) list here

If you told us what your hardware was (Make, Model etc), we might be able to help you better.

LinusStallman · 06-03-2010, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Yes, that's the one.

Whilst you are using grub's editor, you could remove the splash and quiet options, so you'll see the kernel messages as it boots - there might be something "interesting" that'll help you.

The edits you make this way are not permanent - they are just for this boot.

These are many other kernel boot options, it is worth taking a look at the (long) list here

If you told us what your hardware was (Make, Model etc), we might be able to help you better.

Thanks tredegar. I will give this a try. My computer is not a particular model. I got it custom built from komplett.ie
I am currently using a ps2 keyboard and a usb mouse for over a day and have yet to have any freezeing problems (touch wood).

tnorwo · 06-03-2010, 04:22 PM

Hello All… I’m having an issue with getting the Ubuntu 10.04 live CD to even load. I’ve downloaded the ISO twice and burned one ISO on CD and second on DVD, and still hangs on loading the live CD and makes my laptop “Caps Lock” light flash on and off. I currently have Fedora 13 loaded with no issues. I would like to install Ubuntu 10.04 on the other partition but can’t. Any ideas why?

LinusStallman · 06-04-2010, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnorwo

Hello All… I’m having an issue with getting the Ubuntu 10.04 live CD to even load. I’ve downloaded the ISO twice and burned one ISO on CD and second on DVD, and still hangs on loading the live CD and makes my laptop “Caps Lock” light flash on and off. I currently have Fedora 13 loaded with no issues. I would like to install Ubuntu 10.04 on the other partition but can’t. Any ideas why?

Did you run a checksum on the Ubuntu ISO?

Dr. Demented · 09-24-2010, 03:22 PM

I might have found a solution. I had this problem awhile back and had to switch from PS/2 to USB mouse & keyboard, which fixed it for awhile until today. I had just approved an automatic update, so was able to go back and find it in the history using the instructions at this website:
http://hartmansblog.blogspot.com/201...ntu-lucid.html

After finding the offending upgrade (fglrx-modaliases v.4 to v.5), I was able to force the version back. The fix is working for me so far.

tommcd · 09-25-2010, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LinusStallman

How do I save the changes I make? Would I hit Ctrl + b? How can I make the changes permanent?

If you find the correct boot option(s) to fix your problem and you want to make them permanent so they are used every time Ubuntu boots, you can add them between the quotation marks to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line of your: /etc/default/grub file. See this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2#grub%2...efault/grub%29
For example, if you wanted to use both noapic and nolapic, you would add them between the quotes with a space between them like this:

Code:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="noapic nolapic"

Then be sure to run:

Code:

 sudo update-grub

So the changes will be applied to your: /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and be used every time Ubuntu boots.