Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Old Dell Doesn't Recognize Keyboard

May 28, 2012 5:40AM PDT

Hi folks, hope I'm in the right place. I take old computers that others don't want, install Linux (usually Puppy), and donate them to people who need them.

I've installed Wary Puppy 5.1.2 on and old Dell Optiplex GX110 (model MMP), serial # JQ3N 108, Pentium III, 128 MB RAM, 15 GB hard drive. The live CD boots & runs normally fully recognizing my keyboard and mouse and allowing me full control. The problem comes when I reboot. Apparently the BIOS won't recognize my newer, mis-matched keyboard (I get a "keyboard failure" message on the first boot screen) and my Grub boot menu comes up normally, but at this point no input from the keyboard is recognized and I'm stuck.

The BIOS boot screen lists 1995-1998 and I'm guessing this old Dell is looking for a matching keyboard of the same vintage, which I don't have. Anyone have any suggestions for a way around this? Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
So, when you first boot
May 28, 2012 5:52AM PDT

with that Live CD it recognises the keyboard?

That's strange because the BIOS would still carry out its POST, even with the Linux Live CD in the drive waiting to be booted off.

I had a Dell in 2002 running XP, but I had, (and still have), a Belkin wireless keyboard running off a PS/2 connection, so my own impression was that Dell didn't mind what keyboard was connected.

I'm no tech so I will have to leave this for others, but I do think it is unusual for the system to boot initially, pass POST, then into a Live CD all successfully, but then fail on a reboot. What happens on a shutdown then a start up?

Mark

- Collapse -
RE: Old Dell Doesn't Recognize Keyboard
May 28, 2012 11:47AM PDT

Yeah, Mark that's pretty much it. Boots and runs fine on the Live CD, but let me be clear, after I install it to the hard drive and re-boot it doesn't recognize the keyboard. The CD is set for automatic boot and I think Puppy takes care of all the dirty little details of recognizing and configuring attached hardware. But I've got the Grub bootloader installed to the Master Boot Record which means before the OS boots, it goes to a screen of boot choices (in case I have two or more OS's installed on separate partitions). There, I need to arrow up or down and hit "Enter" to continue the boot which I can't do because the keyboard commands aren't recognized at that point. I need to figure a way to configure Puppy to boot automatically without any keystrokes. Any ideas?

- Collapse -
See what the BIOS says
May 28, 2012 11:02PM PDT

about the keyboard, whether it is recognised or not.

I see what you say about Puppy and Grub, but even so BIOS POST is before any of that so neither Puppy nor Grub would have started to load during POST.

I've had this before where my keyboard connection slipped out without me knowing, and when I turned the system on POST reported "No keyboard", so I knew I was in trouble. Fortunately for me my solution was easy.

I know nothing about Linux so you may do better to repost this in our Linux forum here;
http://forums.cnet.com/linux-forum/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Good luck.

Mark

- Collapse -
Solved!
Jun 3, 2012 5:27AM PDT

Sorry - been busy for a few days and haven't been able to get back. I borrowed an old PS/2 keyboard from an old e machines system of about the same vintage and everything just worked! I had full control of my keyboard at boot, my "keyboard failure" message disappeared, and I was able to enter the command for my OS to boot. Lessoned learned: Don't be so pig-headed as to ignore the easy stuff! Thanks for your interest and suggestions, Mark.