MarkGG
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:44 am

Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:32 am

It's my fault. On the first boot I entered the wrong keyboard and now anything I type comes out as gibberish. I cannot load sudo raspi-config as,,, everything I type is gibberish. Any brilliant suggestions?

User avatar
Davespice
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator
Posts: 1665
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: The Netherlands
Contact: Twitter

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:28 am

First thing to do, look on the bottom of your keyboard and check it's power rating.
It will look something like 5V 100 mA. If the mA value is higher than 100, get a different keyboard that does have 100 mA.

User avatar
RaTTuS
Posts: 10559
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:12 am
Location: North West UK
Contact: Twitter YouTube

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:30 am

ssh in - you can reset the keyboard setting that way
How To ask Questions :- http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
WARNING - some parts of this post may be erroneous YMMV

1QC43qbL5FySu2Pi51vGqKqxy3UiJgukSX
Covfefe

obcd
Posts: 917
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:06 pm

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:32 am

Can you run raspi-config over an ssh session from another pc?
Another option is reimaging the sd card and starting all over again.

User avatar
RaTTuS
Posts: 10559
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:12 am
Location: North West UK
Contact: Twitter YouTube

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:43 am

other wise - stab the keyboard and you'll be able to find the keys you need
infact
what happens when you type
qwertyuiop
asdfghjkl
zxcvbnm
/
and we may be abel to figure what setup you have chosen
How To ask Questions :- http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
WARNING - some parts of this post may be erroneous YMMV

1QC43qbL5FySu2Pi51vGqKqxy3UiJgukSX
Covfefe

User avatar
Burngate
Posts: 6303
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:34 pm
Location: Berkshire UK Tralfamadore
Contact: Website

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:34 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout
Most notably, Q and Z change, and so do # ' £ @

MarkGG
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:44 am

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:24 pm

Thanks for the responses.
When typing qwerty... I get.....
q =', w = , (a comma), e = full stop, r = p, t = y, y = f, u = g, i = c, o = r, p = a weird L
a = a, s = o, d = e, f = u, g = i, h = d, j = h, k = t, l = n,
z = semi-colon, x = q, c = j, v = k, b = x, n = b m = m.

The keyboard is a Logitech MK250 (Wireless) drawing 20mA. Have thought about re-loading an o/s but, of course, my card reader isn't working! (Some people have all the luck)

drgeoff
Posts: 10765
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:39 pm

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:40 pm

Dvorak?

See layout at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout. (Search for Dvorak on that long page.)

MarkGG
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:44 am

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:56 pm

WooHoo! Thanks drgeoff! Had I had my braincell attached I'd have thought of that. I transcoded Dvorak into English and have reset keyboard to something that nearly works! The snag I'm now having is that my keyboard is New Zealand not English and thus the symbols are scrambled. Typing @ gives me " and $ = a Pound (symbol). Am I missing something? Is there a kiwi keyboard setting?

grahamed
Posts: 277
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:01 pm

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:40 pm

Why is my deleted post - my typing brain converted my thinking brain's " power supply (to the keyboard)" to "PSU" - showing up in the "in the forums" section?

BJNZ
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:37 am

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Thu Jan 31, 2013 2:19 am

I am not sure what distro you are using. Under Rasbpian I have edited /etc/default/keyboard and changed XKBLAYOUT="gb" to nz.

This works for me, here in Auckland, NZ.
Although at boot up there is a message about can't find nz symbols.
But this doesn't seem to be a problem.

Hope this helps.

Brent

MarkGG
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:44 am

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:58 am

Thanks BJNZ!!! I'm running Raspian but a total novice to it. What/Where do I open/do? to input the alteration you suggest?

BJNZ
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:37 am

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Thu Jan 31, 2013 4:31 am

Hi Mark.

Depending on what you set in Raspi-config your Pi will boot into a full graphics window then you will have to open a terminal from the menu.

Or your Pi will come up in text mode wanting you to enter the user name (pi) and then the password (raspberry)

Once you have a terminal / command line visible enter the line below.
sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard

This should bring up the file in the nano text editor, change the gb to nz using the arrow backspace etc.
Then press ctrl and x keys at the same time ( in fact you can hold down the ctrl before pressing the x key)
Nano will now give you a prompt whether to save or discard the changes. Just touch the Y key once then nano will show the filename to be saved just hit enter.

When you enter sudo nano etc line apart from it saying no such file you may have to setup a root user.

To do this at the command line enter the line below
passwd root
it will then ask for a password, enter it.
It will then ask you to re-enter the password
after you have done that sudo should work.
To alter some of the system files you need root access ( like administrator on windows).

Once you have alter the file you need to reboot the Pi
So you can use
sudo reboot
which is probably better then pulling the power lead.

Hope this helps.
Brent

MarkGG
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:44 am

Re: Gibberish from keyboard

Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:11 pm

Thanks very much BJNZ (and to everyone else who offered advice & suggestions). Keyboard now talks Kiwi!

Return to “Troubleshooting”