Greetungs Linux Questioners! I've searched the forums and Google and haven't found an answer, so I'm hoping one of you can help me out.

Situation:

I have a relatively new Dell desktop system with no ps/2 keyboard input, only usb. The keyboard and mouse that come with it work fine. I've installed Suse 9.3.

After developing symptoms of tendonitis, I got a "Comfort Keyboard System 'Ergo-magic" split keyboard. (as a new poster I am aware that urls aren't allowed to avoid spam to the message board, but if anyone wants the tech details of this keyboard they can be found on www comfortkeyboard com slash keyboards_ergomagic.html). The only problem is that this keyboard came with only a ps/2 connector.

No problem, right? Just get a keyboard ps/2->usb dongle. We went through a few. some didn't work at all. We finally found one that seemed to. It has a ps/2 keyboard and mouse input port, and a single usb output for both. Plugging the keyboard into this and the dongle into the Dell's usb port seemed to work (after a reboot). (Note, I left the Dell mouse plugged in to a different, neighboring usb port) All was happy with the world. But after some amount of time (a few hours), some letter key I hit began spitting out over and over to the active window. Hitting other keys had no effect, nor did unplugging the keyboard. The repeated keystrokes kept coming. They only stopped when I plugged the usb dongle (with keyboard) back in. Then SuSE "recognised new hardware" and simultaneously, they kestrokes stopped.

I left it plugged in over night, and no problems, but the next day, it happened again with a different key. I really like the keyboard, but doing programing on systems where I have root access is just not advisable when any key stroke could suddenly repeat until I re-plug the keyboard back in.

Given that the phantom keystrokes keep coming even after the device is unplugged, I'm guessing it is an issue with the SuSE 9.3 keyboard drivers, but I have no idea where to look specifically.

I glanced through dmesg grepping for "usb" and found what I think refers to the ps/2->usb dongle (Tangtop below) and nothing looks amiss. You'll see below where I unplugged the ps/2->usb dongle and re-plugged in the Dell keyboard which I'm using now listed as:

"using uhci_hcd and address 6"

-------------------------------
useer@machine:~> dmesg | grep -i usb
VBTN PCI0 PCI1 PCI2 PCI3 PCI4 USB0 USB1 USB2 USB3
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 initialized, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
usb 1-1: device descriptor read/all, error -71
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [413c:3010] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1
input: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Generic
usbcore: registered new driver usbserial_generic
usbcore: registered new driver usbserial
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core v2.0
usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 2
usb 1-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
input: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
usb 1-2: USB disconnect, address 5
usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
input: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 3
usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
input: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 4
usb 1-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
input: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Tangtop Generic USBPS2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
usb 1-2: USB disconnect, address 6
usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
usb 2-1.1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell Dell USB Keyboard Hub] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1.1
input: USB HID v1.10 Device [Dell Dell USB Keyboard Hub] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1.1
-------------------------------

So, any idea why a keyboard might mostly work for hours on end, then send a single spurious keystroke over and over again? Onlything I can think of is that dmesg says it is "low speed usb" while the regular keyboard is "full speed". Possible?

Thanks for any and all help or pointers you can provide.

Thespian

I don't know a lot, but will offer a little, which you might already know.

First, the USB 2.0 module is ehci_hcd, not uhci_hcd / ohci_hcd.

Second, an USB port will work as 2.0 only if it has power, not if it does
not have power to it. If there's no power to the hub, it will function
only as USB 1.0/1.1.

Might not be much help if you already knew that...

Greetings,

Is it too late to return/exchange this keyboard? Perhaps the keyboard itself is defective and needs to be replaced. I realize you mentioned that the keys repeat after unplugging it, but I like to consider all options.


On a side note, a "full speed" USB device does not refer to USB 2.0, as referenced here:
http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm

Therefore, I'm thinking the PS/2 adapter is really a "low speed" device and so bus speed probably isn't the issue here.

There are 3 USB speeds -- but you know that. A much better article about
USB is available on Wikipedia.

What I stated is that some hubs don't run at USB 2.0 (neither hi-speed
nor full-speed) without power. This means you need external power to
run it at it's highest speed, otherwise it uses the USB 1.0/1.1 driver and
speed.

Thanks for the info so far. Yes, unfortunately it is too late to return the keyboard in question. This is now mysterious enough that I want to figure it out just because. On friend suggested it may be the ps/2 -> usb adpater I'm using, and will find out the brand that he has used successfully with his keyboard for years.

So, nobody knows what might cause stuck, phantom keypresses within Linux? Is there any process I could truss or otherwise snoop on when it happens? Actually, I suppose that would be hard to do since my keyboard wouldn't be working at the the time. ;-) though I could probably ssh in from an other machine. I just don't know where I'd look.

It's more likely to be the usb adapter than the keyboard. I had a usb adapter on my laptop that kept doing the same thing. In the end, I just got a ps/2 splitter cable for the mouse port (of course, you don't have that option). I've heard that a lot of these usb adapters are crap, so trying a different one is certainly something you want to look at.

linux only runs hi speed usbs!
i have a dell 3100 and linux does not work yet because my keyboard and mouse won't run because they are low speed. my printer works because it is high speed. there is a boot disk put it in and boot to cd-rom. if there is any message about the usb device not working like for me i get the message "uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1 new low speed usb at address 4 2-1 very bad
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1new low speed usb at address 3 1-2 very bad" then you just can't run that keyboard as far as i can tell. if you can give me any ideas how to fix it that would be great. i have ubuntu and they are no help the say to put in "lusb" this does not help in the least little bit.