Keyboard does not work with Grub menu - How widespread?

[John Summerfield]

Chris Tyler wrote:
> I have a system where the keyboard doesn't work when the Grub menu is
> visible. I opened bug 499836 and see now that there's a second report on
> another system with a different brand of motherboard.
> 
> This can be a pretty significant problem, making it impossible to boot
> directly into runlevel 3 if there's a video issue, for example.
> 
> I'm concerned that this problem might be more widespread than reported
> but is not being noticed because hiddenmenu is the default unless
> another OS is present. If you haven't seen the grub boot menu and are
> willing to test:
> 
> 1. Hold down shift or ctrl during the first part of the boot process,
> until the menu appears (with some bioses, you may need to release the
> key momentarily a few times). 
> 
> 2. When the menu is present, you should be able to hit 'e' to edit, 'a'
> to append boot arguments, or 'enter' to boot a menu option.
> 
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=499836
> 
> -Chris
> 


Thanks for reporting that. It's been a problem for some years, but never 
aggravated me enough that I complained to anyone.

I've not seen it on recent systems. I have supposed that it occurs only 
with USB keyboards (my experience), where the BIOS legacy option is 
chosen (so DOS programs and programs like GRUB, that don't understand 
USB, work as expected).

I've always, when necessary, chosen to avoid the problem by installing a 
PS/2 keyboard. It's never been a problem here, I always HAVE TOO MANY 
KEYBOARDS, they breed like power cords.



-- 

Cheers
John

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