I'm discovering the only reason to keep windows installed on my computer is so I can "fall back" to it when my linux installation refuses to work with a new peripheral.

My trusty old dell keyboard is starting to show its age - the space bar is starting to lose functionality - and so I recently unplugged the old, and plugged in the new. The new keyboard is this fancy Logitech USB Internet Navigator Keyboard that has way too many buttons on it I'll never use. It's been lying around my apt unused, and has quiet keys, so it makes a good replacement. It has a USB connection and works great (of course) in windows (98 that is).

I anticipated that when I booted up my RH8 installation, I might need to configure the keyboard, something like that. Unfortunately, that doesn't even happen. Instead, my computer locks up during installation. Right after I select linux in GRUB, when all the startup commands are whizzing by the screen, it freezes. The last message I see on the screen is:

apm:BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0X03 (Driver Version)

So I'm lost. I can't even boot into linux with my new USB keyboard. I currently have a pretty fancy trackball optical USB Microsoft mouse that works like a charm under linux. However, no luck with my new USB keyboard.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance. Cheers.

I suppose it's a bit late to reply to your post, but I've found it using the search so I'll reply anyway... I've recently bought the same Logitech keyboard and I've experienced the problem you described there... lockups during Linux boot even on the very same install process from CD. Solved it enabling USB Keyboard support in my computer BIOS( it was disabled by default).

Hope this may be useful to anyone

Crap. That sounded good but it didn't work for me.

I have a Dell Dimension L550r with BIOS version A03, if that helps.

I had two BIOS options that looked like they might help me out.

Advanced -> Boot Configuration -> Plug & Play OS
I tried turning this on (default was off), no luck

Advanced -> Peripheral Configuration -> Legacy USB Support
Disabled this (default was enabled), and couldn't even move between options in GRUB. Startup promply froze afterwards.

Those are the only two options that seemed remotely associated with my keyboard problem. So I'm still stuck. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Hi,

I have a Logitech MX Duo. My keyboard/mouse receiver plugs into both USB and PS2. When I had both in, I had the exact same problem, but when I removed the PS2 (not really needed anyway, don't know why they want you to do it) it worked fine.