Grub not seeing new keyboard
 

Interesting problem that I don't understand:

When I installed FC7 on this machine, it had a Logitech EX 110 wireless kbrd/mouse combo. It is a dual boot with WinXP Pro, and everything worked fine.

Recently I needed to use that kbrd/mouse for another machine - so I replaced it with a Logitech Deluxe 250 USB kbrd and a basic mouse. All of a sudden, I can no longer bring up grub's boot menu. Hitting any key in grub doesn't do anything.

Everything works fine once I get into FC7, and I have no problem accessing the bios setup via the del key, but as soon as grub takes over, I have no keyboard until FC7 takes over. Consequently, I have no way to get into win at this time. Generally, that's not a problem, since I don't use it for much anyway. But there are a couple of things that I do need to use it for. So I need to solve this.

I can always do a complete reinstall, including returning the other keyboard for that process. But I'd rather not. The wireless kbrd has to be used elsewhere, so permanently returning it is not an option.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

Evidently GRUB doesn't have a driver for a USB keyboard. I don't know about Fedora Core but I've heard that it has some system administration applets. You might be able to reinstall GRUB while running Fedora. You shouldn't need to reinstall Linux. It should be a simple matter of giving GRUB the driver that it needs.

That was my first thought. So I took an adapter (which is actually how the other kbrd was attached, since it is also native usb) and attached it to the ps/2 port. I got the same result.

Tomorrow I will try hooking up a straight ps/2 kbrd which I just retrieved. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas other than just re-installing grub.

Solved - I guess
 

Apparently the problem comes from using the usb keyboard. Plugging in a ps/2 keyboard solves the problem.

What puzzles me is that on the previous keyboard/mouse combo, the keyboard was a usb keyboard. It was hooked in to the ps/2 port via an adapter. But when i use the adapter on the new keyboard, it doesn't work

Anyway, i know what's going on and will address the problem long term.

Thanks for the help.

I'm not at all fond of using USB keyboards. I don't have any reluctance about using a USB mouse but I don't want a USB keyboard. It's just one more driver to cause problems. You want your keyboard working when the operating system is not feeling well. :)

Good point. I never really thought about that, but this whole thing illustrates it well.