Keyboard Stopped Working On Pavilion xt375 Notebook in Linux

[O. Lee Brandhagen]

I am running an HP Pavilion xt375 Notebook with a dual boot Windows Extra Problems (XP) and Linux Mandrake 9.0 (MDK). I have been running this system for quite a while and all was well until XP crapped out and I had to reformat and reinstall. Now my keyboard refuses to work in MDK. Both the notebook built-in and external PS2 keyboard work fine in XP.

When I reinstalled, I created an NTFS partition for XP, a FAT32 partition for sharing data and a partition for MDK. (This is the same successful setup I ran previously). The MDK installation went smooth and the keyboard worked just fine during the installation.

Now, after the initial MDK reboot, the keyboard will not work. Previously, both keyboards, notebook built-in and external keyboard, worked fine with this setup. Nothing is different with this setup, the same hardware and software are used, only now the keyboards will not work.

After the MDK initial install, I used a boot diskette to boot and entered "Linux IDE=50" at the Boot Prompt. This was also required with the previous installation which worked fine. Since I can't get the keyboard to work after booting, I can't modify the lilo.conf file to add this value to the Append line.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I can't get the keyboard to work and would appreciate any ideas or assistance anyone could provide to get it working again. Thanks.

Lee

[Bruce Copeland]

Try creating a rescue floppy (or better yet a rescue CD if you can boot with a CD). There are quite a few good ones around the internet. Then see if you can boot successfully with that. If so, you then know that the keyboard works under Linux, and you should be able to go in and edit lilo.conf, etc.

Bruce

[Steven E. Protter]

Congratulations, you are a victim of the Microsoft monopoly(not).

I've gotten reports in that XP does not play well with Linux in dual boot situations. I totally do not believe in dual booting PC's, not just because of this issue.

Since resources are scare, a PC in my home based biz needs to do work all the time. My Linux test box also acts as a network firewall and provides NAT. If I dual boot the thing, how can it do work all the time?

Just a philosophical position.

P

[Bruce Copeland]

Steven,

I understand your sentiment, but I'm not aware that XP is any more problematic for dual boot than any of the rest of the Windows clan (although the ntfs file system in XP won't be readily usable under Linux). The problems Lee is experiencing are if anything due more to the brain-dead manner in which HP sets up their Windows recovery CD's. They don't recognize the possibility of other partitions on the disk, and therefore you lose Linux (or any other OS or data partition) when you have to recreate a Windows system.

Also, notebook hardware--especially new stuff--is poorly supported under Linux. A dual boot Windows arrangement is often beneficial (if not essential) in order to ultimately get it all to work under Linux. You can always kill the Windows partition AFTER you get Linux fully working.

Bruce

[O. Lee Brandhagen]

I found the problem myself. If I use an external PS/2 mouse or keyboard, nothing works right. However, if I use both an external USB keyboard and an external USB mouse or if I don't use any external devices, just the notebook keyboard and mouse, everything is fine.

Lee