Medion notebook dual boot: Azerty built-in keyboard not working

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toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

@hglee

In the mean time I bought myself a wireless keyboard and mouse, both doing fine...so for the moment I'll use those to remedy myself ;-)
I will continue looking for a solution, but as you said, probably I'll have to wait till a new kernel will recognise my built-in keyboard...

Thx a lot for all your input&help!!
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

Hi people,

first of all thank you all for all your time & work on elabourating this issue. This seems to be the most comprehensive collection of "what doesn't work" regarding the keyboard on this notebook on the web right now.
I purchased my MEDION P15651/M15T in late 2021-01 in Germany.

I haven't dual boot active, but keep a backup of the initial MS10 setup. I am no Mint user, I've set up openSUSE Tumbleweed on this machine, as I have most experience with it for decades now. Same problem as you have on here. I also went through all the hints from the links collected in this thread.

My conclusions for now:
* It's no dual-boot problem, plain Linux boot scenario shows the issue too (proof: booting a Linux USB image)
* It's no Mint only problem, openSUSE and Fedora have it too
* It's no preset-language setup problem, also my german and US keyboard setup is not working
* Switching to a "pc-86" keyboard in xorg.conf (what comes close to the No. of keys) -- no effort
* I'm always close to new kernels, now @5.11.10, but no evidence of improvement, not even in staging area
* I've posted a support/help message in the german MEDION forum section, but MEDION doesn't support any LINUX user

Either some controller doesn't get recognized by the kernel (e.g. a .config option not set yet), or it is too new.
I still wonder about the circumstances, that the touchpad comes over I2C correctly, that the keyboard works in GRUB2 but not later, except for the keys for keyboard lighting and returning from sleep.

Best regards,
Manuel
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Thank you very much for your post Manuel!

For the moment, I'm still using a USB-keyboard, waiting one day the Kernel will recognise my laptop keyboard...fingers crossed ;-)

Rgds,

Tomas
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

Hi again,
I also have an external keyboard attached (a real full size PS/2 one via USB adapter) but that's no solution for ever. :wink:
Description Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Name Enhanced (101- or 102-key)
Layout 00000809
PNP Device ID ACPI\MSFT0001\0
Number of Function Keys 12
I/O Port 0x00000060-0x00000060
I/O Port 0x00000064-0x00000064
IRQ Channel IRQ 1
Driver C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\I8042PRT.SYS (10.0.19041.1, 115.50 KB (118,272 bytes), 07/12/2019 10:07)
Thank you for having posted your Windows HW-info. Not even that was provided by the MEDION people in my thread there.

The info upon IRQ & I/O matches the output of dmesg ('dmesg | grep i8042' e.g.) -- so, if the Win HW info isn't masked somehow, the device is quite present under Linux. On here:
dmesg | grep i8042
[ 1.315915] i8042: PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
[ 1.315916] i8042: PNP: PS/2 appears to have AUX port disabled, if this is incorrect please boot with i8042.nopnp
[ 1.316817] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Maybe we find some time to test the possible kernel command line parameters regarding module i8042.
From /usr/src/linux/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt :
i8042.debug [HW] Toggle i8042 debug mode
i8042.unmask_kbd_data
[HW] Enable printing of interrupt data from the KBD port
(disabled by default, and as a pre-condition
requires that i8042.debug=1 be enabled)
i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controller can only read data from
keyboard and cannot control its state
(Don't attempt to blink the leds)
i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
i8042.nokbd [HW] Don't check/create keyboard port
i8042.noloop [HW] Disable the AUX Loopback command while probing
for the AUX port
i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
controller
i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
controllers
i8042.notimeout [HW] Ignore timeout condition signalled by controller
i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init, cleanup and
suspend-to-ram transitions, only during s2r
transitions, or never reset
Format: { 1 | Y | y | 0 | N | n }
1, Y, y: always reset controller
0, N, n: don't ever reset controller
Default: only on s2r transitions on x86; most other
architectures force reset to be always executed
i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
i8042.kbdreset [HW] Reset device connected to KBD port
Better to read it from the file for proper formatting.

Best regards,
Manuel
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Hi,

Thx for all the info!
I'm using Mint since a couple of years now, and I'm very happy with it. Fixing small issues, I can but with this keyboard issue I tried for weeks in the beginning of this years, without result. So I bought myself a USB keyboard, and I'm happy with it.
What you propose is too difficult for my level of knowledge, so I'll keep using the USB keyboard for now...

Sorry I'm not of a big help...

Rgds,

Tomas
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

What you propose is too difficult for my level of knowledge, so I'll keep using the USB keyboard for now...

Sorry I'm not of a big help...
Hi, Tomas,
that's no problem at all, I just wanted to invite other users too, that may catch up the topic and find my idea useful.
It means testing through the possible i8042.* kernel command line parameters step-by-step. May take some time and patience and may provide no positive solution. I'll try during the coming days.

First result: Adding "i8042.nopnp" doesn't expose additional AUX ports for my P15651/M15T machine, just KBD port is present like reported above.

BR, Manuel
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Hi Manuel,

Keep posting here, so I'll be kept up to date ;-)

Kind regards,

Tomas
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

Hi people,
of course I haven't forgotten you nor this thread, simply as the internal keyboard still doesn't work.
I was busy during last weeks, so I had little time frames only to cycle through the above mentioned debug options.
My six subjectively chosen test patterns tried so far, didn't lead to any success.
I'm now @vanilla 5.12.2 kernel.

In the Ubuntu thread https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1909814 there appeared more requests for fixing this issue, during the last weeks.

Maybe someone of us needs to file a BUG at bugzilla.kernel.org... At least to get some help to debug this keyboard <-> driver problem.

BR,
Manuel
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

Okay, I've done the bug report.
Your and the other collected information from the web up to now are summarized here:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213031

Feel free to participate. I'd make a posting in the ubuntu forum, too, ASAP.

Best regards,
Manuel
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Hi Manuel,

Thx for all the effort. Lets hope the bug report will trigger some help ;-)
By searching on the net, I came to the conclusion (I'm not a specialist) that the main problem is related to the keyboard that Medion computers use.
Medion is a brand, cheaper than most but with high quality, sold a lot in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France....

Lets hope for some nice output from your bug report ;-)

Kind rgds,

Tomas
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

@Manuel: after reading your bug report (I should have read it first ;-) ), I realize you are familiar with Medion Aldi...sorry about that...
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

@Tomas:
Thank you for your feedback!
I really like the performance and quality of this notebook, especially when comparing it with other brands with respect to the price. The technical composition is quite simple but does it's job better than expected.
And in the end... only the cool (!) aluminium housing counts. :wink:

If you still have your dual boot setup on your machine, may I ask you to do me a favour? Can you (re-)check for me in Windows device manager (I don't know if this is the correct name in english) whether the internal keyboard - and only this - really uses "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\I8042PRT.SYS" and maybe find out which parent (controller) & driver it depends on (if possible) ? (So far, I haven't been brave enough, to copy back my Win10 backup to the main disk and thus eventually mess up my well-working Linux. :oops: )

I still suspect the keyboard driver or the parent driver in Linux as the culprit. The Linux keyboard driver looks like to be unchanged for several years. Of course, I may be completely wrong. Yeah, let's hope for some feedback from the kernel people.

TIA and best regards,
Manuel
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Hi Manuel,

Thank YOU for all the efforts!! I'm using Linux for a long time, but from the moment problems pop up, I have to consult the fora. Most of the time I find a solution there, but not this time for the Medion keyboard. So, in that case, I'm lost ;-) Luckily my USB keyboard does the job for now ;-)

Here is what I found for the keyboard when Windows is open:
Description Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Name Enhanced (101- or 102-key)
Layout 00000809
PNP Device ID ACPI\MSFT0001\0
Number of Function Keys 12
I/O Port 0x00000060-0x00000060
I/O Port 0x00000064-0x00000064
IRQ Channel IRQ 1
Driver C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\I8042PRT.SYS (10.0.19041.1, 115.50 KB (118,272 bytes), 07/12/2019 10:07)
Hope this helps?

Have a great weekend!

Rgds,

Tomas
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

Hi Tomas,
thank you for your help.
Unfortunately your info looks the same like the one you've posted earlier on here. So, no real gain, but thank you very much to reassure me for one path of the investigation.
(So, this still means: Windows uses a similar or at least comparable path as Linux when accessing the kbd, regarding IRQ and ports.)

I'd try the newest kernel with some added subcomponents in kernel .config now and some different kernel command-line parameters in the coming days and weeks.

Have a nice weekend, too!

BR, Manuel
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

@toma1970:
We see some light at the end of the tunnel:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213031#c15

In that thread's follow-up post, you'd find a patch, if you want to build your kernel on your own.

Thank you for helping us,

Manuel
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

@toma1970:
Just a short series of questions:
Do you still sometimes use the Win 10 in your dual-boot setup?
If so, have you noticed any BIOS-Updates via the Windows update process?

My reason to ask is, that in MEDION community their people only refer to the term "BIOS updates would be shipped by Windows update function" (maybe written in different words).
Can be, that MEDION pushed some improvements since the notebook is out in the wild.

TIA,
Manuel

PS.: My BIOS strings from dmesg atm. show e.g. these identifying lines:
efi: EFI v2.70 by American Megatrends
DMI: MEDION P15651/M15T, BIOS 209 11/24/2020
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Hi Manuel,

A quick short reply cause it's very busy for the moment, so not much time.
I'll have a look later, in a week or so, but I can tell you yet I never open/use Windows any more on my dual boot...

Rgds,

Tomas
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

Okay, people,
we've got a new testing patch for the kernel that solves the issue at a greater scope.
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213031#c26

It's working fine on my 5.12.9 kernel.
Please try it instead of my previously mentioned linked patch if you want+can compile your custom kernel.

(Short explanation: It looks like to be an ACPI IRQ enumeration error for the kbd interrupt, that also affects numerous "branded" notebooks.)
toma1970
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by toma1970 »

Hi Manuel,

Thx a lot for all the effort!!!
As I said in my first post, I'm a big fan of linux, but I'm not at all a specialist...so I'll need some guidance how to implement your patch...
I read as well what Hui Wang explained, but still no idea how to implement ;-)

Do I have to open a Terminal and write the following into it:

diff --git a/drivers/acpi/resource.c b/drivers/acpi/resource.c
index ee78a210c606..d86cf5546259 100644
--- a/drivers/acpi/resource.c
+++ b/drivers/acpi/resource.c

All help welcome ;-)

Thx!

Tomas
ManuelKrause
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Re: Azerty keyboard not working after dual boot win10 and mint 20

Post by ManuelKrause »

It's a pity. I don't know how the procedure to build a custom kernel looks like at Linux Mint. I'm only safe with the procedure at openSUSE. (But I can tell that your proposed approach is wrong.)
Please search for a detailed tutorial at the Linux Mint Docs / Support / User forum for the correct workflow that fits your distro (otherwise you may accidentially mess up your working system).

I searched a little, and maybe you want to take e.g. this: viewtopic.php?t=135530. IMO it contains most needed information, but of course I don't know if the Linux Mint related installation commands and package names are up to date.
Actual stable kernel is 5.12.9 from https://www.kernel.org/ :
https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel ... 2.9.tar.xz

Between steps 4 and 5, copy the patch_name.diff file to that kernel directory and execute "patch -p1 < patch_name.diff". This adds the code to enable the keyboard.
If you're using the NVIDIA propriatary driver (I don't know whether your machine shipped with the GeForce MX450), as a prerequisite fetch the installer from https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us, make that installer .run file executable and remember the location, as you need to run it after first reboot (what may land in a bare console). This then also would compile the module for the custom kernel, reboot -- and you'd have the new combo running. *1)

This procedure doesn't cover kernel & module signing for UEFI secure boot. I myself haven't learned enough about that mechanisms yet, and although one may consider it as a security risk, I disabled secure boot in the BIOS to make my kernels run.

I don't give any warranty -- but I wish you GOOD LUCK !

EDITS:
*1) I looked at the specs provided by MEDION, looks like your machine has "only" the Intel Iris GFX. Then you can skip these NVIDIA related step(s). You may want to check it with "lspci | grep NVIDIA" versus a "lspci | grep Iris" in a root console.

And... maybe you want to change this thread's topic to something more meaningful, e.g. omitting the dual-boot aspect and adding "MEDION notebook" to it -- as we now know, that's definitely a Linux kernel issue with this notebook series. Just a humble proposal.
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