USB Stick, DSL kills HP Compaq tc1100 keyboard
 

I am running DSL from a USB pen drive on an HP Tc1100. Upon boot, the keyboad no longer works. However, the pointer and mouse buttons on the keyboard DO work.

I have tried booting the pen drive on my desktop computer and DSL booted o.k. and the keyboard on the desk top worked fine.

I did discover if, after booting DSL on the tc1100, I plug in an external USB keyboard, the external keyboard will work -- however, lugging an external keyboard around sorta defeats the purpose of having the tablet!

Thus, it appears that the problem is idosyncratic with the tc1100 -- any idea how I can convince DSL to cooperate with the tc1100's keyboard?

Nosing around on the 'net I've learned that the Tc1100's keyboard is a 'hidden' USB device. The only recommendations I've found are to boot DSL with frugal or run level two using the DSL 2 at boot (these recommendations were for Linux that was installed on the hard drive).

Frugal didn't work because it apparently doesn't load the USB devices.

Using DSL 2 didn't work -- DSL appeared to boot as usual, the GUI came up, pointer worked, but no keyboard. Tried it several times.

I tried removing the tablet keyboard, booting DSL (using the Jog Dial to hit 'enter') and then reattaching the keyboard. No luck. Still couldn't use the keyboard and when using this tactic the pointer won't even work.

I've tried several different KNOPPIX customizations for USB sticks and so far, have found none that work with the tc1100's keyboard. However, the Live KNOPPIX and Ubuntu CDs DO work with the keyboard.

Can anyone provide suggestions on how to get my keyboard to work while running DSL (or any other flavor of Linux) from the USB Pen Drive?

Thanks!