[SOLVED] No keyboard or mouse in Linux

norjay · 03-30-2019, 01:53 PM

I have tried in vain to install several distributions:. Mint 19.1, Mandriva 4.0, Robolinux 10.4, and Zorin 12.4. With each distribution, the keyboard and mouse work fine during the installation process, but when the system boots there is no keyboard or mouse. I have searched the forums for fixes, but how do I apply them if I cannot use the keyboard to open a terminal or use the mouse either? I have been a Linux user for over 20 years, and this is the first time I've encountered this and it's very perplexing.

ferrari · 03-30-2019, 04:05 PM

A bit more information about your hardware might be helpful to start with. Are you installing on a laptop for example? Model? If installing on a desktop, it might be a USB-releated issue. Do you have USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports to choose from?

It might also be worth testing with a live distro (USB stick) to see if that behaves as expected, or perhaps try installing an older version of your favourite distro first.

norjay · 03-30-2019, 07:39 PM

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P CPU: AMD FX-8350 8-Core 4.0 GHz (4.2 GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ RAM: 24 GB G.SKILL Sniper Series DDR3 2400
USB keyboard and Logitech trackball Video: VisionTek Radeon 5450 DirectX

I know this is not the latest hardware, but I just purchased it brand new sealed in the box. I have both USB 2.0 and 3.0 and have tried moving both from the 2.0 to the 3.0 as I saw in a Linux forum.

ferrari · 03-30-2019, 10:03 PM

See if the advice given here is of help...
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...s-in-uefi-bios

In particular, the discussion around IOMMU. Some users have found that along with enabling it in the UEFI settings, the 'iommu=soft' or 'iommu=pt' kernel boot options (specified in the grub configuration) may be required.

Quote:

iommu=soft in conjunction with xHCI+eHIC Handoff and IOMMU Controller(all enabled), without having to enable "Legacy Only". Arch Linux at full speed boot, EFI and witout iommu or usb3 root device issues.

Another similar discussion...
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...-gaming-sli-cf

ferrari · 03-30-2019, 10:07 PM

From a quick google search, it becomes apparent that certain Gigabyte MB's are notorious for this problem...

http://forum.gigabyte.us/thread/6041...-ports-working

This advice may be pertinent...

Quote:

If the kernel is 4.19 or later you are going to want to enable iommu in the bios and pass kernel arguments "amd_iommu=on iommu=pt" to the kernel. "Iommu=soft" will work but it will increase your boot time. You will also have degraded I/O performance with iommu=soft (at least I did).

You can try it out by editing your grub entry when it comes up on the screen by just pressing 'e' before grub disappears. Put the arguments after the word 'quiet', no quotes (it's a ways down). If it works well you can make it permanent.

norjay · 04-07-2019, 04:55 PM

I bought some usb to ps2 adapters. The specs said they would adapt any usb mouse or keyboard into a ps2 socket. I was surprised that when I moved five years ago, I did not keep any ps2 stuff. The result is the same: ps2 mouse and keyboard work in Windows 10, but Linux does not recognize either one, just like with usb. Windows sees usb and Linux does not.

ferrari · 04-07-2019, 05:07 PM

Read/try the advice in post #5.

mrmazda · 04-07-2019, 09:32 PM

Which distro is currently installed? I have two HD5450 Radeons (Powercolor and XFX). Maybe I can see if there's something peculiar about them affecting input ports. Logitch trackball is what I use, usually with ancient PS/2 keyboards.

As to using PS/2 keyboards with adapters for motherboards with no PS/2 ports, my luck has been mostly negative, but it's been a very long time since I tried.

ljones0 · 04-13-2019, 05:58 PM

I have this problem with my gigabyte motherboard too!

I just tried the advice contained with the link to the gigabyte forum/website above. I'm using debian buster (testing) and adding "amd_iommu=on iommu=pt" to /etc/default/grub (and remembering to turn on iommu in the bios) works here with kernel 4.19.0-4-amd64. Also remember to run "update-grub" as well.

Before this I was putting in "iommu=soft" into /etc/default/grub and disabled iommu in the bios - that worked, but I still had some USB issues.

One temporary workaround which works here (I needed to do this for the debian installer) was to use a usb 3 hub and plug my keyboard into that.

No idea to what extent specifying amd_iommu=on iommu=pt has though, I still see a few errors. Here's an example (dmesg);

Code:

[  494.977958] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[  494.978246] scsi host16: usb-storage 4-1:1.0
[  495.989427] scsi 16:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 6.50 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[  495.989939] sd 16:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg8 type 0
[  495.991154] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdg] 1970175 512-byte logical blocks: (1.01 GB/962 MiB)
[  495.991779] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdg] Write Protect is off
[  495.991785] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdg] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 08
[  495.992391] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdg] No Caching mode page found
[  495.992399] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdg] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  495.997307]  sdg: sdg1
[  496.000140] sd 16:0:0:0: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk
[  496.292806] usb 2-1.3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[  496.484807] usb 2-1.3: reset full-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[  509.379393]  sdg: sdg1

That "device descriptor read/64, error -110" doesn't look so good and neither does the line after it. However I was able to read that device (an ancient 1GB usb memory stick) ok in this case. Not sure what is going on here as I tried an 8GB memory stick in the same usb port but did not recieve that device descriptor error and trying the 1GB USB memory stick in the same usb port didn't give the message again. So I'm not sure if amd_iommu=on iommu=pt is any better than iommu=soft.

BTW I didn't connect those usb memory sticks via a usb hub I have a front panel in my PC which gives me 4 usb ports at the front of my case and that connects interally to the motherboard; that's what I connected the 1GB and 8GB memory sticks to. Of course it could always mean my usb front panel isn't 100%....

ljones

ferrari · 04-13-2019, 06:11 PM

Thanks for reporting back regarding the advice in that link. It may be helpful to others who come searching.

norjay · 04-13-2019, 11:22 PM

I tried the iommu=soft command and it did indeed slow the boot down, but I still had no mouse or keyboard. I started trying every possible combinations of ports, and finally found the right one. Keyboard into USB 3.0 and my Logitech trackball plugged into the ps/2 mouse port via a ps2 to usb adapter. Works fine now in every version of Linux I boot into.

SOLVED!!

ferrari · 04-14-2019, 12:29 AM

Good to read that you found what works for your system.

ondoho · 04-14-2019, 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norjay

SOLVED!!

please mark it so (see my signature).