Arch Linux

fatjake

Member

Registered: 2010-04-26

Posts: 45

Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

Hello Everybody,
I recently found Archlinux and with all of the praise decided it was time to try out a lightweight distro. I only have one problem so far (but a big one for me), and that is my keyboard when in X. Although the 12 hours I spent trying to fix it yesterday were a great learning experience, I think it is time to humbly ask for some help. I have been through all of the relevant information (multiple times) in the Beginners Wiki, Xorg Wiki, and Xorg Input Hotplugging wiki. I have tried disabling hotplugging and then using nvidia generated xorg.conf, x -configure, and manually editing it a whole bunch of different ways. Same results always

I have since re-enabled hotplugging and have looked at modifying the hal configuration (should be unnecessary with a US keyboard right?). Basically, I have gotten nowhere, when I run startx it launches openbox with the correct resolution, mouse works fine, but keyboard only works on the numberpad when numlock is on. The rest of the keyboard does nothing when I type. The keyboard is an old-school IBM-Model M clicky in PS2. This is about the most generic PC keyboard ever, so I don't think that is the problem, and it works fine except when in X.

Right now my .fdi files are back to defaults, my Xorg.conf is nvidia generated, and hotplugging is not disabled. Hal and Dbus seem to be running fine as much as I can tell. Please check out the below files/logs and let me know what you think. I am sure I am just missing something simple, but scouring the internet is no longer helping.

http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/Xorg.0.log
Is that normal at the bottom of the log where it shows it unloading all of those devices?

http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/xorg.conf.new
This is the xorg.conf.new that is in the root folder (root is the user I am currently using for now). There is also an xorg.conf in /etc/X11/ but I think that the one in root is being used, correct?

http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/rc.conf

Thanks!
Jake Cousino

Last edited by fatjake (2010-04-29 07:46:48)

Peanut

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2009-05-24

Posts: 99

Re: Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

I see that you have a manually configured xorg.conf. Xorg seems to first add the keyboard according to your configuration, and then delete them:

(WW) Disabling Keyboard0
(WW) Disabling Mouse0

Then it autodetects and configures your keyboard again:

(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" (type: KEYBOARD)
(**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
(**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev"
(**) Option "xkb_layout" "us"

And for some reason it seems to get rid of it again:

(II) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Close
(II) UnloadModule: "evdev"

I don't really understand why this happens, but you could at least try letting xorg work with the manually configured driver kbd instead of letting it automatically configure it with evdev. Try adding this to your xorg.conf, and see if it helps:

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "AutoAddDevices" "off"
EndSection

Last edited by Peanut (2010-04-26 22:50:20)

fatjake

Member

Registered: 2010-04-26

Posts: 45

Re: Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

Thanks for the response, I tried it and found a few things but it is still not working.

First, I read my xorg log file more carefully and realized that it was not using the nvidia xorg.conf.new from my first post. So, I deleted the existing xorg.conf from /etc/X11, and then copied the xorg.conf.new to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then, I started up X and compared the log file to the one in my first post but saw no difference except timestamps. So I added your serverflags section into /etc/X11/xorg.conf right under the serverlayout section. Then I started up X and the keyboard still behaved the same as always. When I exited X (using the right mouse click menu in openbox), I saw the following new errors:

(EE) config/hal NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)
(EE) config/hal NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)
(EE) config/hal NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)
(EE) config/hal NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)
(EE) config/hal NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)
(EE) config/hal NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)

Also, I have been seeing these other errors when I exit back to the terminal, not sure if they are relevant. There are dozens of them, all similar. I only have one of them below.

 expected keysym, got xf86BrightnessAdjust; line 1693 of inet

New xorg log file can be seen here:
http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/Xorg.0.log.new1

Edit: I am going to reboot now with a different keyboard and see if there is any difference, just to eliminate that as a possibility.

Edit 2: I tried with a cheapo spare keyboard and got the same results, numpad works but rest of the keys don't.

Last edited by fatjake (2010-04-27 00:04:41)

fatjake

Member

Registered: 2010-04-26

Posts: 45

Re: Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

Well, I am giving up for tonight. I tried reinstalling a bunch of things and did a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. At this point I have deleted xorg.conf, with HAL I should technically not even need one for Keyboard to work, correct?

With xorg.conf deleted I get slightly different behavior in X. The mouse still works fine, and the numpad on my keyboard still works as before. If I hit any other key outside of the numpad it cycles through resolutions or zoom levels in X, or something. Below is my most recent xorg log file, if I can't find something out within 24 hours then I will probably reinstall from scratch, hoping all the way that I don't run into the same problem again. If anybody has any more ideas, run them past me and I will either do them or let you know if I already tried that.

http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/Xorg.0.log.new3

Edit: Here are two threads with problems that seem related, neither thread has a real resolution.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=62150
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-436575.html

Thanks!
fatjake

Last edited by fatjake (2010-04-27 06:12:32)

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

If you run xev (put it in openbox's startup folder or whatever the equivalent is) you can find out if, for example, your system is detecting a certain key/modifier as being held down all the time?

---

Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

fatjake

Member

Registered: 2010-04-26

Posts: 45

Re: Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

If you run xev (put it in openbox's startup folder or whatever the equivalent is) you can find out if, for example, your system is detecting a certain key/modifier as being held down all the time?

Hello Ngoonee,
Good idea, I just checked that out but it doesn't look like I have any stuck key problems. I did 3 tests with it and the results can be seen below. I think there would be more "KeyPress" events if there was a problem there. I also booted into windows and downloaded a program to check in windows if any keys were stuck, didn't show any problems there either. If I can find a way for me to see the keystroke results live while in openbox then I want to see what event (if any) shows when I press a key that is not working right.

http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/keystrokes0.txt
http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/keystrokes1.txt
http://www.isolrocks.com/Junk/keystrokes2.txt

Thanks,
fatjake

fatjake

Member

Registered: 2010-04-26

Posts: 45

Re: Keyboard not working in X, except for the numpad (SOLVED)

I ended up reinstalling Arch and the problem did not re-occur. This was not a total waste of time as I learned quite a bit (more in a few days than I learned with months of Ubuntu use).

The only thing that I can think of for sure that I did different:

The first time I installed X and then ran it without first making an xorg.conf. This caused X to not start and had an error about needing libdrm, dri and dri2. So, I installed those and then later on made the xorg.conf by running nvidia-xconfig

After the reinstall of arch I installed X and then I started X without an xorg.conf and saw the same error. I ignored it and ran nvidia-xconfig to make an xorg.conf and then was able to start X (without libdrm, dri, and dri2). I don't really know for sure if having those installed was the problem the first time, or if that isn't even remotely possible, but thats the only thing I can think of that I did different was not installing those things.

Either way, I am glad it is working and I look forward to learning much much more.

EDIT: It kind of feels weird marking this (SOLVED) when really it wasn't. I hope that something in here is useful to somebody, as when I searched the internet for this problem I found others with the same problem but it didnt look like anybody knew how to fix it.

Last edited by fatjake (2010-04-29 07:48:18)