Keyboard does not work with Grub menu - How widespread?

[Robert L Cochran]

On 05/10/2009 09:02 PM, John Summerfield wrote:
> 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.
>
>
>
I sometimes have this problem too, but I can't remember the specific 
details. I think most of these can't-get-grub-to-see-my-keyboard 
experiences are related to the less expensive genre of motherboards. One 
of my wife's very nice looking, fancy Dell USB keyboards doesn't 
function at all and it took me a long time to realize that. It got a few 
hard knocks too many while traveling with us. My USD $15 Logitech USB 
keyboard works great. An even cheaper $10 Inland brand USB keyboard also 
worked wonderfully until I left it in my car one freezing cold night. So 
if at first your keyboard don't work, try a second keyboard which is 
known-good.

And oh, my problem over here is not enough mice. They don't breed enough.

Bob