[SOLVED] Can't get my PS2 keyboard working

ibid · 2011-09-28 22:51:49

Hi
I just bought the reknowned IBM model M keyboard with PS2 connector, and when I boot into Arch, I can't get it to work.

I found this post, which links to a supposed solution, but the link is unfortunately dead: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=36299

Some facts:
1. The keyboard does work when I'm at the bootloader.
2. I can boot into a Puppy Linux derivative from USB and use the keyboard without any problems, which leads me to believe the problem is in Arch.
3. I am using a USB mouse.
4. Plugging and unplugging the keyboard does not show up in dmesg

Any thoughts on how to fix this are appreciated

Thanks
Martin

Last edited by ibid (2011-09-30 02:12:28)

karol · 2011-09-28 22:59:06

PS/2 is not hotpluggable IIRC, so dmesg won't show anything.
Are you connecting the keyboard directly or through some kind or e.g. PS/2 -> USB connector?

Any errors in the logs?

ibid · 2011-09-29 00:11:36

karol wrote:

PS/2 is not hotpluggable IIRC, so dmesg won't show anything.

I didn't think so either, but the previous post I linked suggested it might be, so I thought I post the results of my test.

Here's what I see in /var/log/messages.log

Oct 10 19:51:28 boots kernel: [    1.322784] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input0
Sep 28 17:54:05 boots kernel: [   36.946024] input: CHICONY USB Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/input/input8
Sep 28 17:54:05 boots kernel: [   36.946527] generic-usb 0003:04F2:0112.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [CHICONY USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:04.1-1.2/input0

The first line looks like it is from the PS2 keyboard, at least that's how I interperet AT Translated Set 2. Strange that the timestamp is completely wrong. The other lines are from when I plugged my USB keyboard in.

Maybe there is a hook in mkinitcpio I can add, or something with udev?

ibid · 2011-09-30 02:11:08

I got the board working. Not the optimal solution, yet, but I'll share it here.

In short, I compared the modules that were loaded in puppy and arch using lsmod, and set things up so that all of the modules puppy was loading would load, and all of the modules that arch normally loads that are not in common with puppy were blacklisted.

The yet to be completed step is to slowly unblacklist the modules and remove the puppy modules until I identify the true source of the problem.

Added benefit is I finally go rid of the !modules that made my rc.conf non-compliant

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-28 22:51:49

[SOLVED] Can't get my PS2 keyboard working

#2 2011-09-28 22:59:06

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get my PS2 keyboard working

#3 2011-09-29 00:11:36

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get my PS2 keyboard working

#4 2011-09-30 02:11:08

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get my PS2 keyboard working

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