Compaq usb keyboard stops working after reboot

[Poolman67.]

Hi all,
I have a problem with Puppy 7.0.1 and a USB Compaq keyboard. On the original install, everything works fine including the keyboard. After a powerdown and re-boot from CD, the keyboard is dead. If I go back to windows and delete the PUP001 file from the partition Puppy is using and then re-boot, the keyboard works just fine. Any suggestions other than just leaving the box running 24/7? So far I am loving this other than this keyboard issue. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Mike

[Guest]

I also tried Puppy 1.0.7, and had the same experience. Reboot, and the USB keyboard is dead. Curiously, Puppy 1.0.5 had rumblings of this problem, but only after I installed the wifi-ng drivers for my USB WIFI dongle. At each boot, after loading the USB WIFI driver, the keyboard was dead. After searching the forums, I hacked together a patch: I now keep a text file sitting on the desktop with the contents "modprobe usbkbd" and "modprobe keybdev" in it. When the keyboard dies, I open up this text file and paste these 2 commands into a terminal window using my mouse. This wakes up the keyboard again. So I can feasibly revert back to Puppy 1.0.5. I know somebody's going to be thinking, Why didn't he put this in the initrc file. I tried that, in a few different ways that didn't work, but I think it's just a timing issue with sequencing or delay necessary when loading these drivers. Pasting them into the terminal window works every time, so I put up with it.
The command line interface outside of the window manager is inherently different enough in Puppy 1.0.7 from version 1.0.5 so that I cannot use 1.0.7 on my Compaq. (No mouse cursor to use to paste in my "wakeup the keyboard" commands.) Only the very first time I boot Puppy without the pup001 file, does it recognize the USB keyboard. I suppose the other solution is to go out and get a cheap non-USB keyboard since the Compaq also has the traditional keyboard connector, but it's the principal of the thing.

[CRHY]

I have the exact same problem with my old Compaq. Has anyone gotten any farther at finding a workable permanent solution to this?

-CRHY

[adamhorner]

I have the same kind of problem on a relatively modern HP compaq P4 thing (at work), however the usb keyboard and usb mouse are never recognised. I'm trying to use the 1.05 chubby version, and haven't had a chance to burn and test the 1.07 version yet.

[tntn]

Hi

I just downloaded and burned the 1.0.7 image (first try of Puppy ever).
Seems I got the same problem as several others with my Compaq USB keyboard.

During initial bootup (boot menu) it works fine, but then it stops responding and I have no idea of what to do next since during the bootup it stops at selecting mouse device and since the keyboard at that point does not respond, the boot up sequence does not get passed that point.

Any one who have a suggestion, other than plugin a regular non usb keyboard which I don't have?

[papakanush]

I have had the same experience on my Compaq desktop at home (currently a dual system with XP and Ubuntu). Like the others, Puppy 1.07 works (and USB keyboard) on the first boot-up, but keyboard fails to work on subsequest start-ups. The mouse (also USB) and everything else seems to work. I'm wondering if the same thing happens with the new 1.08. I'll try it out after work.

Puppy is a great system though. A ton of power and flexibility for a road warrior with a laptop. Works great as a dual system with XP on a IBM R40. XP when I have to, my blazing pup when I want to.

[papakanush]

Tried again with 1.8r1 using the XP installer for Puppy. Different version, same story.


There is some issue with Puppy rebooting from pup001 saved configurations using USB connected keyboard. The USB connected keyboard works fine as long as you don't use saved settings. The mouse works, but I specified PS2, even though it is a USB, cause it seems to work better (seems I read that in a post a long time ago). This problem is specific with Puppy since Knoppix, DSL, Mandriva, Mepis, you name it, has not had this problem ( I'm having to type this on Ubuntu). I doubt this is specific to my Compaq Presario machine.

I tried to copy and paste modprobe commands into terminal using the old double mouse buttons. I could copy and paste, but couldn't figure out how to do "enter" or "return" with the mouse.

The "sticky" on USB seems to be addressing how to boot up from a USB memory, and doesn't address this problem of USB connected devices directly, at least not that a newbie like me can understand.

Appreciate any help anyone has to offer..

[papakanush]

As suggested in another forum string, I added the following statements

modprobe usbkbd
modprobe keybdev

in the following file of puppy 108r1:

/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit-cd

in the following location (see red for addition of the modprobe statements):

#!/bin/sh
#MULTISESSIONLIVECD --leave this line here, some scripts read it.
#v1.0.0
#This is the startup script for Puppy booting from a CD and everything on the CD,
#including usr_cram.fs and all the home folder /root. In the latter case, new and
#changed files are written back to the CD at end of session, requiring a burner
#drive. The hard drive is not used at all.
#Requires a PC with at least 256M RAM ...um, should work with less
#if have swap partition.

#v1.0.2 now entered from rc.sysinit
#note, rc.sysinit already loaded ide-cd module.
#NEED TO DO IN THIS SCRIPT:
# rc.sysinit has already found the drive that we are booting off, so remove detection code below.
# checkout where rc.update is being called, is it the right places?

/bin/clear #v1.0.3 note, had to move clear from /usr/bin to /bin.
#...do this to hide the cdrom driver error msgs due to multiple tracks.
echo "Executing rc.sysinit-cd for multisession-CD/DVD."

PATH=/bin:/sbin
COMPRFS="squashfs" #0.9.8 changed from cramfs to squashfs.

#v1.0.5 copied from rc.sysinit...
SIZERAMDISKK=`cat /root0/.etc/ramdisksize`
SIZEFILLK=`cat /root0/.etc/ramdiskfssize`
SIZEPHYSICALFILLK=`cat /root0/.etc/ramdiskphysicalfssize`

#0.9.8
DEBUGFUNC()
{
xxcc="$@"
while [ "$xxcc" ];do
echo -n "DEBUG: ENTER or type a command: "
read xxcc
eval $xxcc
done
}

check_status()
{
/bin/echo -en "\\033[65G"
if [ $1 -eq 0 ]
then
/bin/echo -en "\\033[1;32mdone"
/bin/echo -e "\\033[0;39m"
else
/bin/echo -en "\\033[1;31mfailed"
/bin/echo -e "\\033[0;39m"
echo "Pausing for 60 seconds..."
sleep 60
fi
}


#OLDPVERSION=`cat /root/.etc/puppyversion` #v1.0.1
##v1.0.0 have decided to do this everytime...
#cp -a /root0/* /root/
#cp -a /root0/.[a-zA-Z0-9]* /root/
#...v1.0.2 note, rc.update, called below does this again, but with -u option.
#...v1.0.6 timezone problem, moved this to first boot only.
sync

modprobe usbkbd
modprobe keybdev

I successfully remastered a live-cd (not a multi-session) with the change in the rc.sysinit-cd file; started a presh pup001 file to write to and successfully started up puppy. However, as before, the Compaq usb keboard failed to be recognized on subsequent boot-ups. Aaarrggh.

Is there another place I should add these modprobe statements?
Any help from anyone would be appreciated.

DJM

[papakanush]

I finally gave up and purchased a Dynatex keyboard with PS2 connection for only $US20 (cheapest one at BestBuy). It actually has a usb cnnection with a PS2 adaptor. I first tried just attaching the PS2 adaptor to the existing compaq keyboard usb connection, but the computer didn't recognise the compaq keyboard. But when I used the new Dynatex keyboard, puppy 108r1 worked like a charm. I don't consider this fixed for the originator's question. It was just a hardware change to accomodate puppy.

Decided it was worth $20 to get past this road block.