Internal/USB keyboard not detected ONLY during GRUB screen after 19.3 update

[RedSkull23]

Hi all,

I'm Christopher, aboard on Linux Mint since 17.3 (MATE variant), installed on an HP Compaq 6715b notebook in dual boot mode alongside Windows 7. The PC is intended to be used with 64-bit technology, but i'm using 32-bit instead because 64-bit was heating up my PC a lot and it also faced freezes when executing a certain amout of load on it, so i reinstalled it 32-bit. After almost a year of use i've started encountering the first issue. The only change that i made before facing this was updating to 19.3 as soon as it has been detected by Update Manager (before i was on 19.2) two months ago. I noticed after rebooting that GRUB screen has been redesigned, since that icons and graphics was different, so i patiently waited to see if a fix would have been released thinking that it could have been bugged, but then i decided to ask here because the issue persists.

The problem is that the keyboard of my notebook always works, but it doesn't exclusively in a specific moment during boot: on GRUB screen. This prevents me from booting any other OS other than Mint, that luckily boots automatically by default after the countdown. Please note that the keyboard works fine before GRUB, when i press F10 to enter BIOS settings, and also works correctly when Mint boots up. Every single button works, from arrows to numbers to symbols, it only doesn't work in GRUB menu. Plus, if i boot to BIOS before booting to GRUB, GRUB freezes when i press any key. GRUB not freezes if i boot directly to it on startup, but doesn't detect any keyboard input and the countdown keeps going as i press every other key.

Since that many posts that i read both here and googling suggests to try with an external USB keyboard plugged in, after enabling the "USB Legacy" option in BIOS, i've managed to take a try to see if i was lucky. Sadly, neither the external USB keyboard is recognized by GRUB: i tried different ports, none of them make my keyboard been detected. As the hardware keyboard of my PC, it works correctly before and after GRUB, it only doesn't in GRUB.

Here's the output of my inxi -Fxxxrz:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: RedSkull Kernel: 5.3.0-40-generic i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: MATE 1.22.2 info: mate-panel 
           wm: marco 1.22.3 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq 6715b (GB834EA#ABH) v: F.20 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 30C2 v: KBC Version 71.2D serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 68YTT Ver. F.20 
           date: 12/01/2011 
Battery:   ID-1: C1ED charge: 21.9 Wh condition: 22.5/22.5 Wh (100%) volts: 12.4/10.8 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary 
           type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Unknown 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-58 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K8 rev.F+ rev: 2 
           L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 svm bogomips: 7581 
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/1900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
Graphics:  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS690M [Radeon Xpress 1200/1250/1270] vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
           driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 01:05.0 chip ID: 1002:791f 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa compositor: marco v: 1.22.3 
           resolution: 1280x800~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: ATI RS690 v: 2.1 Mesa 19.2.8 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.0-40-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
           driver: tg3 v: 3.137 port: 4000 bus ID: 10:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:1693 
           IF: ens1 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11a/b/g vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: b43-pci-bridge v: N/A 
           port: 4000 bus ID: 30:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:4312 
           Device-3: Huawei E353/E3131 type: USB driver: cdc_ether,usb-storage bus ID: 1-3:11 chip ID: 12d1:14db 
           IF: enx001e101f0000 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 111.79 GiB used: 76.98 GiB (68.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9120822AS size: 111.79 GiB speed: 1.5 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: E 
           scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 9.32 GiB used: 7.76 GiB (83.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-2: /home size: 24.24 GiB used: 20.25 GiB (83.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 4.77 GiB used: 512 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:Alexx2000.list 
           1: deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Alexx2000/xUbuntu_18.10/ /
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tricia main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntuhandbook1-audacity-bionic.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/audacity/ubuntu bionic main
           2: deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/audacity/ubuntu bionic main
Info:      Processes: 167 Uptime: 1h 48m Memory: 2.76 GiB used: 1.04 GiB (37.8%) Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 running in: guake inxi: 3.0.32 

I'm desperately looking for help: in the beginning i didn't had to rush to solve this, but now i absolutely need to regain access to choose which OS to boot because after Coronavirus spread out here in Italy, my workplace is now allowing employees working from home, but unluckily they rely on businesses programs that runs only on Windows 7/10: without having access to it, they can't configure my PC to remotely connect to my position, and so, i can't work from home.

I've tried to list in a detailed manner my issue but i apology for the long post: i hope that someone can seriously help me to get out of this, because i don't know what to do or what i could try. I'd like to avoid reinstalling everything from scratch or to loose access to Mint, i say this because i know that if i reinstall Windows 7 from a live USB, it overwrites GRUB with its bootloader during installation, locking me out forever from Mint (i'd assume?).

Thanks in advance
Christopher

[RedSkull23]

I've tried to check if super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso could be helpful and solve the issue, but the problem i face is the same as in GRUB menu: both internal or external keyboard works before and after GRUB/Super Grub2 Disk screens, but it doesn't work when i'm here. Both cases are regarding GRUB screens, directly or emulated by super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.

Help, please

[asinoro]

Try this, update Manager > View - Linux Kernels, install the first and the last 4.15 kernels, after installing them, run:

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sudo update-initramfs -uk all ; update-grub 

Boot one of them each time and check if there is difference.

[RedSkull23]

Try this, update Manager > View - Linux Kernels, install the first and the last 4.15 kernels, after installing them, run:

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sudo update-initramfs -uk all ; update-grub 

Boot one of them each time and check if there is difference.

Thanks for your answer asinoro.

I've installed exactly the kernels you've mentioned, both of there were removed, i removed them time ago because several newer kernels were working apparently correctly.

Some week ago i tried to hold down shift key during boot to load an older kernel, but i remember that as per every other key of my keyboard it wasn't detected. How can i set which kernel to boot from terminal without doing it in GRUB? In this way, maybe i could workaround my keyboard issue and load an older kernel for sure.

[asinoro]

Before you try to change kernel boot options you should install first the kernels you want. After installing them:

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sudo update-initramfs -uk all ; update-grub 

Always have backup of your grub file with the command:

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sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.backup

which you can restore it from live USB.

Check this:https://kowalczyk.me/change-default-ker ... ntu-18-04/

[RedSkull23]

Yeah, i already did

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sudo update-initramfs -uk all ; update-grub 

After that i had installed 4.15.0-20 and 4.15.0-88 yesterday evening.

This morning, following the instructions in the post that you've linked above, first i booted 4.15.0-20

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redskull@RedSkull:~$ uname -a
Linux RedSkull 4.15.0-20-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:15:38 UTC 2018 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux

And seeing that the keyboard wasn't responding yet, i went ahead booting 4.15.0-88

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redskull@RedSkull:~$ uname -a
Linux RedSkull 4.15.0-88-generic #88-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 11 20:12:47 UTC 2020 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux

But unluckily the keyboard issue remains the same as the beginning. Works before and after GRUB, but not in GRUB. This means that the issue isn't related to kernel version, i'd assume? Anyway do you have any other suggestion or advice which i could try? Thanks a lot for your help.

[asinoro]

To boot from live USB and to check if there is difference in versions Mint 18.3, Mint 19.0

[RedSkull23]

I've just tried a live USB that i usually keep for emergency recoveries of data on my HDD when Windows became not bootable at all in the past, which has a live Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 32-bit installed (if i don't remember bad this is the live USB that i used to flash Mint on my HDD alongside Windows 7 time ago), and the result is the following.

The old GRUB screen is loaded, the screen is all grey except for the line with the 10 seconds countdown and the Mint old logo at the top:

Scenario 1 - If i press any key, the countdown freezes and so does the live USB.
Scenario 2 - if i let the countdown proceed, the line disappear and the live USB freezes.

I'll retry with a 18.3 later today, but it's weird that the same problem persists also with a live USB which previously worked. I'm hardly trying to troubleshoot what causes this behavior because it's so weird.

[Ferowin]

I hope that you were able to get this fixed. I am having the same problem. I found this solution. If your still having problems, maybe it will work for you, as well.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1 ... art-0.html

[RedSkull23]

I hope that you were able to get this fixed. I am having the same problem. I found this solution. If your still having problems, maybe it will work for you, as well.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1 ... art-0.html

Hi, saw only yesterday your answer, after i while i had lost hope and i didn't checked the topic daily.

Anyway, optimistic, i tried this

Have you tried adding GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="usb_keyboard" and GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="usb usb_keyboard ohci uhci ehci" (see note below) in /etc/default/grub and then the command 'grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg' to regenerate grub.cfg? That should add various additional 'insmod' lines in grub.cfg, for those GRUB modules.

Note: Those GRUB modules are in the directory /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/ if your PC has UEFI, or /boot/grub/i386-pc/ if your PC has PC BIOS.

with the only difference that after that i added GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="usb_keyboard" and GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="usb usb_keyboard ohci uhci ehci", i ran "sudo update-grub" since the file says to do so everytime i modify it.

Maybe i did wrong by not running 'grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg' instead of update-grub, but now my system won't even load anymore. It just hangs at this:

https://ibb.co/k37wVnk

Keyboard obviously doesn't work, so the screen remains as the picture attached whatever key i press. Any suggestion? I'm thinking I'm gonna restart from scratch... I'm tired of this situation.

[karlchen]

<mod>
Split off swnw's post from this old (unresolved) thread about Mint 19.3. Reason: Different Mint release and different hardware.
The split off new thread is > here <.
</mod>