PS2 keyboard works once gentoo loaded but not at boot...

McGruff · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 148

This is a strange one...

A keyboard plugged into PS2 socket won't work at boot. I can't call up the BIOS screen or select entries in the grub menu. However, once gentoo has loaded, it's working fine.

If I plug it into USB socket everything works fine through the boot process. Unfortunately I need to use PS2 because I'm using a KVM switch with no USB (and one of the computers has no functioning USB anyway). The KVM switch has been disconnected for testing - same result.

The second computer is showing the same problem. With the keyboard connected directly to PS2, nothing during boot but OK again once gentoo has loaded.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21623

If it works under Linux and fails in pre-Linux, that sounds like a problem outside of Linux control. I have used PS/2 keyboards even on relatively recent hardware and they work fine in both Linux and pre-Linux. Perhaps your BIOS fails to enable PS/2 ports? Can you change the state of numlock or capslock while in the pre-Linux environment? If not, that would suggest the keyboard is entirely ignored.

asturm · Developer Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 8935

In case these are UEFI systems there could be some rapid boot mechanism enabled, thus ps/2 initialisation disabled.

McGruff · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 148

I just rebooted and noticed a "keyboard not detected" message in the boot screen. Caps lock and num lock buttons don't work until I get into gentoo.

Everything worked fine, on both computers, until a few weeks ago but now they both exhibit the same problem.

It's really got me stumped - thanks for the help.