Keyboard doesn't work

[Chris Kobrzak]

Exactly the same issue here: the keyboard not working at all and a lot of error messages popping up during the boot process:

Err 110, Cannot enable port 3. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

My set-up:

• Power: 73014050 1000mA/5V Hama USB charger
• SD card: 2GB Kingston, 8GB 30MB/s and 16 GB 15MB/s SanDisk
• Keyboard: wired A1243 and A1242 Apple keyboards
• OS: 19/04 of Debian 6
• Other: TV connected via HDMI, no network connection

The problem with the keyboard seems to have been caused by the USB cable provided with the charger. When I replaced it with a short cable that came with my external Western Digital hard drive (you can easily tell it's much better quality!), the A1243 keyboard started magically working. The error messages during the booting process disappeared and I was able to type stuff on the screen. Please note, I didn't need to update the firmware or make any other changes or tweaks.

Interestingly enough, the very SD card I'm using seemed to be faulty and I was going to throw it away as both my MacBook Pro and a Nikon DSLR stopped recognising/mounting/reading it a while ago. It's a nice surprise to see the Pi having no such problems and happily booting the operating system off it.

[mahjongg]

You may get away with it now, but keyboards with built in hubs are still marginally useable with the PI, due to power problems with them (the effect of which you have seen, because a better cable marginally improved the power situation, just enough for the keyboard to get the juice it needed). Due to their in-built passive HUB these keyboards consume more power than many average keyboards, and also the keyboard logic itself is behind the built in passive hub. In principle the RPI is also acting like a passive hu,b (it outputs only 4.4 Volt to USB port, like other passive hubs do) and its not permitted in USB specs to couple two passive hubs in series (actually things are a bit more complicated, but this is a useable analogy).

If you can, use a simple keyboard without frills instead, or at the very least do not try to plug in a mouse into this keyboard.

[adrian.oconnor]

@chris -- that's awesome that you got it working I've tried lots of different USB cables, and I'm pretty sure that's not my problem.

Last week I found some other threads with people discussing the same problem. A couple of the people there (who are far better with hardware than me) found that one of their crystals wasn't working properly, and that was preventing the USB and ethernet chip from working. I think that's my problem. I certainly don't get a link light when I plug an ethernet cable in, and Arch says it can't find eth0, which is consistent.

I think my 25Mhz crystal is duff. Some people got theirs started by putting the board in the fridge for a while(!) and reflowing the solder to the crystal. I think I'm just going to send mine back to RS for a replacement.

[adrian.oconnor]

Just as a final word on this topic, in case anybody else is experiencing the same problem and is looking for the solution... I finally got it working... by sending it back and getting a new board.

My keyboard, power supply, cable and SD card were fine the whole time. New Raspberry Pi booted up and worked like a charm from the moment I flicked the switch.

Ah well. All's well that ends well.

Edit: And if you're interested, the new board took just over a week to arrive.

[Bigally]

You took the words out of my keyboard.

Just as a final word on this topic, in case anybody else is experiencing the same problem and is looking for the solution... I finally got it working... by sending it back and getting a new board.

My keyboard, power supply, cable and SD card were fine the whole time. New Raspberry Pi booted up and worked like a charm from the moment I flicked the switch.

Ah well. All's well that ends well.

Edit: And if you're interested, the new board took just over a week to arrive.

Except mine took two weeks to arrive, still not bad.

[Chinook]

Key board doesn't work on the Password prompt line.
I posted this message to another thread but it may be more applicable here.
Just booted the RPI for the first time today and it ran through the process OK till the login section,
At the Login prompt the key board works just fine but when the password prompt comes up (after hitting enter) the keyboard will not work.
After 60 second the login times out and typing is possible again on the login line.
It seems the problem is not keyboard hardware related.

[Bigally]

Just keep typing as all varieties of Linux OS hides the password as you type it, for added security.

[RaspberrySmoothie]

I was able to use a USB wireless keyboard/mouse to do the installation process for my Pi. But once it was set up and running X, it didn't work any more. I presume that running X takes more power than running the text based interface used during setup.