Keyboard not funtioning at login

[bkz81]

Hello all. I am having a problem with my keyboard at the login screen. I have a p/s 2 mouse and keyboard. The mouse works fine, but the keyboard is non responsive. I see the green light on the num lockbut that's it. I am running SUSE 10.0 in a dual boot with windows xp, and the mouse and keyboard work just fine in windows. I have noticed that the keyboard works when i'm in runlevel 3, but not in 5. Is there any commands i can run at runlevel 3 that maybe solve this issue? Or any other information that i can get to you? I have tired to repair the OS with the CD, but that wasn't it. Thank you for your time on this matter.

[Shaun Williamson]

I have no ideas on this one because its not usually a problem. Is there anything
special about your keyboard? Can you try another one.
You could try running SaX2 to configure the keyboard but even with default
settings it should work.

[oldcpu]

I have noticed that the keyboard works when i'm in runlevel 3, but not in 5. Is there any commands i can run at runlevel 3 that maybe solve this issue?

Follow user Shaun Williamson's advice, and run sax2 (or even yast2) when you are in run level 3. When logging in to run level 3, loggin as a regular user, and NOT as root. You can get root permissions when needed by typing "su". Under sax2 or yast2, select a keyboard option that you believe will work under Xwindows. Then exit yast2/sax2, type "exit" to get rid of root permissions, and type "startx". Does that work? If so, you should be able to boot normally to run level 5.

By the way, when in run level 3, the way to reboot is, with root permissions, type "shutdown -r now", and the way to shut down, with root permissions, type "shutdown -h now".

[lamark74]

Have seen this same issue at SLES10, 2.6.16 with USB keyboard. In this case, a
gdm-restart clears it up. Has a root cause been found or the problem posted to SuSE?

[krishna_danim]

hi,
I too have a similar problem. Num lock is on till login screen,but as soon as login screen comes up numlock turns off and keyboard doesnt respond.i have redhat 9.0 installed with XP. I tried with another kb also but was futile.what do i do,how should i fix thiss????

-Burning Wire

[lamark74]

Not sure if your problem is related, but the problem I described earlier is being
worked by Novell SuSE bugzilla # 206804. It's apparently related to a gdm and serial
console initialization problem. It can be avoided at Linux by either a gdm-restart
or booting via init 3, then startx after that.

[Distorted Humor]

on my my recent install I had a similer issue, but took out my USB keyboard and put in a older keyboard to login.

[linuxfreak003]

Ok, This is for anyone having problems with their keyboard not working when xwindows/gdm etc. starts. I got this from gentoo so i'm not totally sure if it will work on all other distros.(I will tell you if the keyboard stops working again on my suse 10.1 comp.)
I don't clearly understand all of this but if actually read it(i didn't) then you should get the idea.

# This is here to serve as a note to myself, and future developers.
#
# Any Display manager (gdm,kdm,xdm) has the following problem:  if
# it is started before any getty, and no vt is specified, it will
# usually run on vt2.  When the getty on vt2 then starts, and the
# DM is already started, the getty will take control of the keyboard,
# leaving us with a "dead" keyboard.
#
# Resolution: add the following line to /etc/inittab
#
#  x:a:once:/etc/X11/startDM.sh
#
# and have /etc/X11/startDM.sh start the DM in daemon mode if
# a lock is present (with the info of what DM should be started),
# else just fall through.
#
# How this basically works, is the "a" runlevel is a additional
# runlevel that you can use to fork processes with init, but the
# runlevel never gets changed to this runlevel.  Along with the "a"
# runlevel, the "once" key word means that startDM.sh will only be
# run when we specify it to run, thus eliminating respawning
# startDM.sh when "xdm" is not added to the default runlevel, as was
# done previously.
#
# This script then just calls "telinit a", and init will run
# /etc/X11/startDM.sh after the current runlevel completes (this
# script should only be added to the actual runlevel the user is
# using).
#
# Martin Schlemmer
# aka Azarah
# 04 March 2002

note: This seems to be a fix for gdm/kdm/xdm. but i had a keyboard problem on suse where even if i changed to runlevel three and typed startx(bypassing gdm) then my keyboard still wouldn't work. I don't know if it would fix that also.