USB Keyboard Kernel Panic

Hi,

I bought a cheap pcworld usb keyboard for use with the raspberry pi. Whether I boot the Pi with the keyboard connected, or connect it when the logon appears, the PI goes into kernel panic straight away. I take it Ill have to get another keyboard?

I intialled assumed the optical mouse was the problem, but it doesnt seem to object to that!

Same thing happened to me using a Kensington USB keyboard. Following a tip elsewhere on this forum, I unplugged the keyboard and rebooted. This time, the Pi booted. When it got to the login prompt, I plugged in the keyboard again and it's working OK so far.

Thanks. I think the issue might be that I was using an inadequate power supply. The first one I used was 350ma and the second 0.7amp. Same problem both times. Technically the 0.7a should be ok but its probably borderline. Im going to go and get a 1.2amp power supply today and give that a go!

Ah. Ive just noticed on the wiki that the Pcworld essentials keyboard ive been using is listed as a "problem keyboard". Best I change it out.

The Tesco £5 keyboard works no problem

Thanks, I took the keyboard back and swapped it for a Microsoft one - everything works great now!

Update to my post above
After doing a bit of forum surfing, I got the impression that it wasn't the usb peripherals that were causing the no-boot problems, but rather the power supply. I also went looking on Amazon for a few extra usb chargers and noticed that a lot of the reviews complained of the poor quality of the power supplies and the usb cables on offer (I always read the 1-star reviews when buying on Amazon).

So I changed out the power supply and Nokia phone cable that I was using for a Motorola smartphone power supply and a Kindle usb cable and, hey presto, the Pi now boots with both the keyboard and optical mouse attached. I have soft rebooted several times and had one kernel panic, which was solved by a hard reboot (unplugging the power supply).

Other posts on the forum all point to the Pi being very sensitive to the quality of it's power supply and its associated micro usb cable, so if you're getting kernel panics, try a different (preferably branded) power source and cable.

BTW, my Pi is not yet connected to a network and I'm using the composite video output.

Possibly a combination of the two, but the keyboard I was using is list as "problem" on the wiki. Having a decent power supply helps though - I got a duracell one that kicks out max 1amp, so i'm good for that now.

i've the same issue with 850ma alimentation. Kernel panic when i plug keyboard, but works well with other USB devices like Magnetic card reader, usb key

I also get a kernel panic when connecting a USB keyboard.
I have measured voltage between the two test points (TP1 and TP2) while the keyboard is connected and it is within the accepted range.
What could be the problem?

[abishur]

For some reason, the pi just doesn't like certain keyboard at this time (beta device and all that jazz ) If your keyboard is causing a kernel panic, then use a different keyboard

Bought a USB keyboard just for the R-Pi.
My other keyboards are using the PS/2 interface. I love mechanical keyboards, using a Dell AT101W on my main computer.

I don't want to buy more keyboards, I already have 2 spares + this USB one.

Hope this bug will get fixed soon.

Best regards,
Alex

I am also having the same problem
Bought a usb keyboard from a shop and that is not working with the pi... Showing kernel panic.....
Any way to solve it ?
Is it any hardware issue or any software problem? Any guess?

SE you running Raspbian with the latest firmware?
Have you experimented with the various cmdline.txt settings (see the "elephant" thread for history of the work in progress with USB