Keyboard occasionally nonresponsive on bootup with Debian Sid
Please cc me on replies.
I've got a couple of problems for which I can't identify the responsible
subsystem, so I thought I'd ask in a general forum like this. Here's the
first:
Running Debian Sid, various 2.6.x kernels.
About one out of every three times I boot up my laptop, my keyboard is
totally unresponsive. The mouse works fine. I can do machine fn-calls,
e.g., fn-f5 to activate bluetooth, or fn-f7 to switch CRT/LCD. But the X
server doesn't respond to any keystrokes, and keys like Caps Lock don't
change the status light. I don't know if the keyboard would work in
console, since I can't switch over there. (I've never had this problem
occur when I boot up to a lower runlevel, however).
I was pretty sure this was linked to my specific hardware, but I recently
moved from a Dell Latitude to a IBM Thinkpad X40, and still get the same
behavior. There's very little in common (hardware) between the two
systems, so I think that excludes hardware.
On those times when the keyboard doesn't work, it *does* work in the
bootloader (GRUB); it's only after booting up that the keyboard doesn't
work.
Ctrl-alt-del is also non-functional, so the only way I can restart is to
power off.
Nothing unusual in the log files. Also occurs with several different 2.6
kernels, including 2.6.8.1. I'm not sure it has ever happened with a
2.4.x kernel, but for various reasons I can't use those kernels, so I
haven't experimented that much.
Can anyone suggest a way to hunt down this problem? I can't even guess
the origin.
(likely irrelevant, but I do get 'atkbd.c: Spurious ACK on
isa0060/serio0. Some program, like XFree86, might be trying access
hardware directly.' a lot in dmesg).
--
Adam Rosi-Kessel
http://adam.rosi-kessel.org
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