Booting from install disk, no USB keyboard

Question

I'm trying to install Arch Linux on a new system with a Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI board. Although I can use the USB keyboard (and mouse) in the BIOS, the keyboard doesn't seem to work at all once I boot off the boot DVD.

There are several people who've solved this problem by enabling IOMMU in the BIOS. I couldn't find an option called IOMMU, but I found VT-d, which I believe is the same thing. It's enabled.

Also, Arch detects my (wifi) network card and attempts to run DHCP on it. I don't know if this is relevant, but I think I remember reading that if IOMMU is disabled network cards aren't detected.

EDIT: I tried disabling UEFI in the BIOS, just in case... No change. I still have no keyboard.

EDIT 2: I think maybe appropriate kernel modules for my USB controllers aren't available (or aren't loading?) I went into hardware info from the install disk boot menu, and under PCI Devices, I can see three USB controllers. The "product" line reads:

8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family EHCI

Vendor is Intel Corporation. Module is unknown. Maybe this is the issue? Most other devices have modules listed.

EDIT 3: This seems to be an issue with the install disk kernel, apparently it doesn't support the Logitech unifying receiver: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/35991

The kernel mentioned in that bug report is in fact on the current 01/08/2013 install disk, and I have a unifying receiver. I managed to boot a Gentoo minimal install disk off a USB stick and the keyboard was fine. So I think I've answered my own question. Unless anyone has anything to add...?

**VT-d** is for *hardware-enabled virtualization* support such as [KVM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel-based_Virtual_Machine) — justbrowsing, Aug 14 '13 at 11:13
I knew the two were related, but there's an Ehow that indicates they're labels for the same setting: http://www.ehow.com/how_7705109_enable-iommu-bios.html — rainbowgoblin, Aug 14 '13 at 18:13
My point was it's not going to help unless you installed *ArchLinux* in a **Virtual Machine**. Sorry. — justbrowsing, Aug 14 '13 at 18:15

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 19 '13 at 05:25

0

In my case I looked at the BIOS options for my LanParty motherboard and found that I needed to enable the USB keyboard. That solved the problem.

answered Dec 19 '13 at 05:25

Stever

1

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 26 '13 at 02:52

The kernel used on the August 2013 install disk, 3.10.4, apparently doesn't include support for the Logitech Unifying Receiver. The problem seems to have been fixed in the 3.10.6 kernel: after I installed Arch using a wired keyboard, my wireless keyboard worked fine using the unifying receiver with the Arch kernel that was installed (3.10.6). I also compiled my own 3.10.7 kernel and my wireless keyboard is still working.

Most of the bug reports and forum posts relating to this issue come from Arch websites, but I found a post from a Ubuntu user, so this may or may not be a more general problem.

Booting from install disk, no USB keyboard

2 Answers2