No Keyboard, No Mouse [Solved]

[nickdanger]

I can't figure this one out... I was using a nicely running install of Sabayon 5.2 Gnome 64bit AMD, with all recent updates through 5-17-10.

I plugged a SD/MMC card reader (which had been working until today) into a USB port, and the reader device mounted in Nautilus. As soon as I inserted the SD memory card. The mount points (icons in the GUI)for the reader disappeared. I disconnected the USB cable, and did a normal restart (reboot).

The start up proceeded normally and presented the usual log in screen and text box with cursor, but no mouse pointer, and no keyboard response. Both the keyboard, and the mouse are USB, so right away I assumed the card reader had "overloaded" and shutdown, my USB port power supply. I shutdown, disconnected the power cord, waited 5 minutes, and rebooted to the exact same problem.

I shutdown again, replaced the USB keyboard and mouse with PS2 style (mini-DIN connector) replacements, and rebooted to the same problem. I shutdown and switched to my backup hard-drive with a good install of Sabayon 4.0 Gnome AMD 64, and everything worked correctly with both the PS2 peripherals, and the original USB Keybord and mouse. I booted a generic Debian live DVD and everything worked correctly also.

I mounted the original hard-drive with the problem Sabayon 5.2 install, after booting with a Sabayon live DVD, but I could not see the xorg.conf file I was looking for, I guess because I don't know how to deal with the LVM to get the files displayed.

My assumption is that the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is corrupted, or possibly the input driver files it references. My problem is, I can't figure out how to get to a console command prompt so I can look around. Obviously, Ctrl-Alt-F1 or backspace is not going to work. I don't know how to force a run level either. I tried the recovery mode, but it ends at the same non-responsive log in prompt. The keyboard works until X starts, and then it is dead, no lights, nothing.

I would be happy with any direction on how to mount my hard drive files in the live CD environment, or at least how to force the hard drive bootloader to not load the GUI.

Thank you,
N.D.

[Fitzcarraldo]

You could boot a LiveDVD and then chroot into your HDD installation. See the following post for how to chroot: http://forum.sabayonlinux.org/viewtopic ... 71#p116580.

[nickdanger]

I knew there had to be a way to access the hard drive, thank you, I have access to the hard drive files now. I looked at "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" and it really has no reference to the keyboard or mouse in the device section, but I am not sure it explicitly needs to be there any more if there are only "generic" input devices.

It occurred to me that mounting the card reader may have somehow modified settings from udev (in the /dev directory). Not sure exactly what should be in there, but I can study it a bit.

N.D.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Another thing you could do is to remove you xorg.conf file completely (well, move it somewhere else as a backup, e.g. mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak) to see what happens. The X.Org developers changed the way Xorg works: these days it does not need an xorg.conf file and it guesses the parameters for you. However, if you do create an xorg.conf file then it takes precedence. If the file xorg.conf does not already exist then you can create a 'bare bones' one by using the command:

Code: Select all

Xorg -configure

See the Gentoo The X Server Configuration HOWTO for more details. See also:

Code: Select all

Xorg -help

Something else that might be worth trying would be to re-install the X.Org Server (x11-base/xorg-server) and the X.Org drivers x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev, x11-drivers/xf86-mouse and xf86-input-keyboard.

All the above can be done while you are 'chrooted' into your HDD installation.

[nickdanger]

I recreated my xorg.conf, and put the device sections in for the keyboard and mouse (just standard Logitech USB devices). It did not help, so I reloaded the X11 drivers for the keyboard and mouse, which did not help either. I figured out how to use the Linux LVM from the Live CD environment, and edited etc/fstab/ to mount the hard drive /dev/vg_linux/lv_root/. I copied the /dev/input/ folder from the live install to the old install, and now I have input again.

A big thank you for your support.
N.D.