Keyboard problems -- RESOLVE/FIXED

Fred Krogh · Last edited by Fred Krogh on Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:32 pm; edited 1 time in total

The problems started when I rebooted with the latest kernel in portage. I had no response from the keyboard at the log on screen. I've tried different kernels, earlier versions of the nvidia-drivers, and attempted to try an earlier version of the xorg-server, which I'm not sure was ever done correctly. It seems if I make a change and then try to revert back to an earlier state, things get worse no matter the direction. Sometimes my root password is accepted in recover mode (different kernels) and sometimes not. If I get that far and do init 2, it won't accept my password for logging on, except rarely it does, but then when trying to do anything it asks for a new login. I've tried a different keyboard with no success. Note that this computer will still serve web pages, and so most of the system is working.

At this point I'm hoping someone can suggest something other than reinstalling gentoo. If it comes to that I'm tempted to go with ubuntu which I have on the laptop I'm typing on. I've loved using Gentoo for about 15 years and have had a number of "interesting" problems to work through;. I'd love to see any suggestions anyone might care to make. Note that at this point I can not get enough into the system to display things like xorg.conf, or anything else! Many thanks,
Fred

charles17 · Advocate Joined: 02 Mar 2008 Posts: 3664

v_andal · Guru Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 541 Location: Germany

You should clarify, what is your problem actually. Your keyboard is not working, or your passwords are not accepted? If it is only passwords, then you may have messed up your /etc/passwd file, or removed some module that was managing that file. If your keyboard is not working, then please be more specific, if it is console mode or in xorg. Have you tried to boot from CD (for example SystemRescueCD https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage)?

Fred Krogh · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:09 pm Post subject:

Since the problem started, I've never been able to log in to X. There were times when a console login was possible, but the furthest I can get at the moment is to login, and then do anything and it wants to log me in again. Passwords are accepted on a recover startup some of the time. But after an init 2 it wants me to log in again, and that I cannot do. Note that I have tried an alternate keyboard. Thanks for the responses.

charles17 · Advocate Joined: 02 Mar 2008 Posts: 3664

Does the keyboard work while you're still on the bootloader (are you using one?) before booting starts?
And can you interactively stop/skip the boot services with that keyboard?

Fred Krogh · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:05 pm Post subject:

I tried plugging the computer into a wall plug instead of into a UPS. Don't know if that is important as X still sees no keyboard. But backing off I got a 4.3.3 kernel to start. Maybe that was just lucky. I can now ssh into the computer from my laptop. I find myself wondering if perhaps problems are caused by the power supply. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Gatsby · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: Keyboard problems

Fred Krogh · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 5:45 pm Post subject:

Wow! There's a reason I love Gentoo. sys-apps/sysvinit-2.88-r7 has the system booting with the latest kernel just fine. Many thanks for this.

Gatsby · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 5:54 pm Post subject:

Fred Krogh · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:34 pm Post subject:

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I'm running an xfce4 desktop, so the problem is known to affect kdm, and xfce4. I've also mentioned this problem in a bug report.

gem · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 6

[quote="Fred Krogh"]Perhaps I should have mentioned that I'm running an xfce4 desktop, so the problem is known to affect kdm, and xfce4. I've also mentioned this problem in a bug report.[/quote]

Seems to me anything that uses /dev/console and /dev/tty1 to /dev/tty6 is affected. So anyone at the console.

I can confirm that the downgrade to 2.88-r7 solves the issue.

More info in bug #573668

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=573668

The easiest workaround may be to remove this line from your /etc/innittab:

x1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 console linux

That line was added in 2.88-r8.

proteusx · Guru Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 338

systemd black ops?

gi7omy · n00b Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Posts: 10

Just as an update, an emerge -upND --with-bdeps=y @world rolls back to the older sysvinit automatically
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gem · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 6

[quote="gi7omy"]Just as an update, an emerge -upND --with-bdeps=y @world rolls back to the older sysvinit automatically[/quote]

I just did this, an a gentoo stable system recently downgraded to 2.88-r8

eix-sync; emerge -uDNa --with-bdeps=y world

It moved me back up from 2.88-r8 to 2.88-r9

Oh, and your -p just makes it pretend to do, not do.

Which is not so bad, the problem is the etc-update after that, which breaks the /etc/innittab

gem · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 6

Sorry, I obviously replied too soon. Looking aver this again I see I made a few mistakes.
My apologies for any confusion.

> I just did this, on a gentoo stable system recently downgraded to 2.88-r8

I had downgraded -r7, -r8 was the bad one, and -r9 is the new good one.

> eix-sync; emerge -uDNa --with-bdeps=y world

That bumped me from the -r7 to the now fixed -r9. -r8 is not an option.

And all is well again, at least AFAIK

gi7omy · n00b Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Posts: 10

"...Oh, and your -p just makes it pretend to do, not do. ..."

My apologies - I did mean 'uND' to actually do it. I spotted the rollback with the -p option. (my second language is Typonese :mrgreen:

)
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