Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Valdis.Kletnieks]

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Running 2.6.39-rc1-mmotm at the moment on a Dell Latitude E6500, that wants an
external USB keyboard/mouse and monitor when it's in its docking station in the
office. I have an old Microsoft Natural keyboard that has a PS/2 connector, but
I like the tactile feel so I didn't want to get rid of it.  So we recently got
some PS2->USB adapters, which appear in lsusb as follows:

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter

Now, when I first power up the laptop in the docking station, it *does* see the
keyboard just fine, and Grub is able to talk to it, and everything works (this
particular boot, I was able to hit the space bar to get to the Grub menu, use
arrow up/down to move between entries, all looked good).  So it isn't like the
device needs any initialization above and beyond what the BIOS is doing at
initial power-on.

However, when the Linux kernel starts up, it sees the adapter, but doesn't
recognize key presses until I disconnect and then reconnect the keyboard:

[    5.733323] usb 1-4.2: new low speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
[    5.827679] usb 1-4.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8f, idProduct=0020
[    5.827692] usb 1-4.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[    5.827701] usb 1-4.2: Product: PS2toUSB Adapter
[    5.827708] usb 1-4.2: Manufacturer: GASIA
[    5.846069] input: GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/input/input12
[    5.847894] generic-usb 0003:0E8F:0020.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-4.2/input0
[    5.855346] input: GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.1/input/input13
[    5.857351] generic-usb 0003:0E8F:0020.0003: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-4.2/input1
[  134.879149] dracut: Scanning devices dm-0  for LVM volume groups

root VG is LUKS-encrypted, so the initrd waits till the passphrase is entered.
That didn't work at 6-8 seconds in when I got the prompt - type keys, no
response from dracut.  I gave it some time, then about 2 mins after boot I
disconnected and reconnected the keyboard's PS2 connector from the adapter, and
then it worked fine, and I was able to enter the passphrase and dracut was
happy.

Not sure what to make of the fact that it registers the input devices right
off, but I see nothing in the dmesg output that the keyboard was unplugged/
replugged.

I have zero evidence that this device ever worked, as I only got it a few days
ago and haven't had a chance to try anything older than 39-rc.

Any idea/suggestions?

Oh, and the output of 'lsusb -v', here for tl;dr reasons:

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               1.10
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0         8
  idVendor           0x0e8f GreenAsia Inc.
  idProduct          0x0020 USB to PS/2 Adapter
  bcdDevice            2.80
  iManufacturer           1 GASIA
  iProduct                2 PS2toUSB Adapter
  iSerial                 0 
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           59
    bNumInterfaces          2
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xa0
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower              500mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         3 Human Interface Device
      bInterfaceSubClass      1 Boot Interface Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol      1 Keyboard
      iInterface              0 
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bLength                 9
          bDescriptorType        33
          bcdHID               1.10
          bCountryCode            0 Not supported
          bNumDescriptors         1
          bDescriptorType        34 Report
          wDescriptorLength      62
         Report Descriptors: 
           ** UNAVAILABLE **
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0008  1x 8 bytes
        bInterval               8
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         3 Human Interface Device
      bInterfaceSubClass      1 Boot Interface Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol      2 Mouse

      iInterface              0 
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bLength                 9
          bDescriptorType        33
          bcdHID               1.10
          bCountryCode            0 Not supported
          bNumDescriptors         1
          bDescriptorType        34 Report
          wDescriptorLength     130
         Report Descriptors: 
           ** UNAVAILABLE **
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x82  EP 2 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0005  1x 5 bytes
        bInterval               8
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)


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Re: Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Alan Stern]

On Tue, 26 Apr 2011 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:

> Running 2.6.39-rc1-mmotm at the moment on a Dell Latitude E6500, that wants an
> external USB keyboard/mouse and monitor when it's in its docking station in the
> office. I have an old Microsoft Natural keyboard that has a PS/2 connector, but
> I like the tactile feel so I didn't want to get rid of it.  So we recently got
> some PS2->USB adapters, which appear in lsusb as follows:
> 
> Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter
> 
> Now, when I first power up the laptop in the docking station, it *does* see the
> keyboard just fine, and Grub is able to talk to it, and everything works (this
> particular boot, I was able to hit the space bar to get to the Grub menu, use
> arrow up/down to move between entries, all looked good).  So it isn't like the
> device needs any initialization above and beyond what the BIOS is doing at
> initial power-on.
> 
> However, when the Linux kernel starts up, it sees the adapter, but doesn't
> recognize key presses until I disconnect and then reconnect the keyboard:
> 
> [    5.733323] usb 1-4.2: new low speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
> [    5.827679] usb 1-4.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8f, idProduct=0020
> [    5.827692] usb 1-4.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
> [    5.827701] usb 1-4.2: Product: PS2toUSB Adapter
> [    5.827708] usb 1-4.2: Manufacturer: GASIA
> [    5.846069] input: GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/input/input12
> [    5.847894] generic-usb 0003:0E8F:0020.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-4.2/input0
> [    5.855346] input: GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.1/input/input13
> [    5.857351] generic-usb 0003:0E8F:0020.0003: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [GASIA PS2toUSB Adapter] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-4.2/input1
> [  134.879149] dracut: Scanning devices dm-0  for LVM volume groups
> 
> root VG is LUKS-encrypted, so the initrd waits till the passphrase is entered.
> That didn't work at 6-8 seconds in when I got the prompt - type keys, no
> response from dracut.  I gave it some time, then about 2 mins after boot I
> disconnected and reconnected the keyboard's PS2 connector from the adapter, and
> then it worked fine, and I was able to enter the passphrase and dracut was
> happy.
> 
> Not sure what to make of the fact that it registers the input devices right
> off, but I see nothing in the dmesg output that the keyboard was unplugged/
> replugged.
> 
> I have zero evidence that this device ever worked, as I only got it a few days
> ago and haven't had a chance to try anything older than 39-rc.
> 
> Any idea/suggestions?

Have you tried testing the adapter by plugging it in after the system 
is running?

Testing in an initrd environment is rather difficult...

Alan Stern

Re: Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Valdis.Kletnieks]

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On Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:55:57 EDT, Alan Stern said:
> On Tue, 26 Apr 2011 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:

> > Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter

> Have you tried testing the adapter by plugging it in after the system 
> is running?

It works fine at the Grub screen.

It *doesn't* work for the kernel when it initially starts up, even though a few
seconds ago the hardware worked just fine.

It *does* work after I've unplugged/replugged it - I've tested both the USB
side and the PS2 side, in either case it starts working.

I'm not sure what difference "plug it in after it's running" and "unplug/
replug" will have. I suppose I could test that, but I'm suspecting the results
will be "it works fine after plugging it in once the kernel is up".


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Re: Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Jiri Kosina]

On Tue, 26 Apr 2011, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:

> > > Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter
> 
> > Have you tried testing the adapter by plugging it in after the system 
> > is running?
> 
> It works fine at the Grub screen.
> 
> It *doesn't* work for the kernel when it initially starts up, even though a few
> seconds ago the hardware worked just fine.
> 
> It *does* work after I've unplugged/replugged it - I've tested both the USB
> side and the PS2 side, in either case it starts working.
> 
> I'm not sure what difference "plug it in after it's running" and "unplug/
> replug" will have. I suppose I could test that, but I'm suspecting the results
> will be "it works fine after plugging it in once the kernel is up".

It seems like the BIOS handover of the USB input device doesn't work 
properly.

The way things usually work in such situations -- BIOS is able to 
understand USB input devices in a very basic mode (hidp) and translate the 
events into PS/2-looking events, so that things like grub (which don't 
understand USB HID) are able to see keyboard events -- BIOS presents those 
as PS/2 devices.

Once kernel is booted, it takes over devices in this 'legacy' mode from 
BIOS, and initializes them properly as USB input devices.

Seems like this process is broken on your system. Could you please try to 
disable legacy USB emulation in your BIOS, and see if the problem 
persists? (it will make USB keyboard unavailable in grub).

-- 
Jiri Kosina
SUSE Labs, Novell Inc.

Re: Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Valdis.Kletnieks]

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On Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:29:42 +0200, Jiri Kosina said:
> On Tue, 26 Apr 2011, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
>
> > > > Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter
> >
> > > Have you tried testing the adapter by plugging it in after the system
> > > is running?
> >
> > It works fine at the Grub screen.
> >
> > It *doesn't* work for the kernel when it initially starts up, even though a few
> > seconds ago the hardware worked just fine.
> >
> > It *does* work after I've unplugged/replugged it - I've tested both the USB
> > side and the PS2 side, in either case it starts working.

> It seems like the BIOS handover of the USB input device doesn't work
> properly.
>
> The way things usually work in such situations -- BIOS is able to
> understand USB input devices in a very basic mode (hidp) and translate the
> events into PS/2-looking events, so that things like grub (which don't
> understand USB HID) are able to see keyboard events -- BIOS presents those
> as PS/2 devices.
>
> Once kernel is booted, it takes over devices in this 'legacy' mode from
> BIOS, and initializes them properly as USB input devices.
>
> Seems like this process is broken on your system. Could you please try to
> disable legacy USB emulation in your BIOS, and see if the problem
> persists? (it will make USB keyboard unavailable in grub).

Possible datapoint - the USB handoff can't be *totally* broken on the laptop,
because it handled another Microsoft Natural keyboard with a USB on it just
fine, so it's something specific to the GreenAsia adapter.

I disabled legacy USB emulation, and as expected, the keyboard wasn't available
to grub.  It was *also* unavailable to the initrd until I did the 'disc/reconnect' thing,
at which point it started working.  (Sorry, don't have the dmesg from that
one, can get it tomorrow (Wed) morning if you want.  And any advice on
additional debugging I can turn on to help would be accepted too).



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Re: Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Alan Stern]

On Tue, 26 Apr 2011, Jiri Kosina wrote:

> It seems like the BIOS handover of the USB input device doesn't work 
> properly.
> 
> The way things usually work in such situations -- BIOS is able to 
> understand USB input devices in a very basic mode (hidp) and translate the 
> events into PS/2-looking events, so that things like grub (which don't 
> understand USB HID) are able to see keyboard events -- BIOS presents those 
> as PS/2 devices.
> 
> Once kernel is booted, it takes over devices in this 'legacy' mode from 
> BIOS, and initializes them properly as USB input devices.
> 
> Seems like this process is broken on your system. Could you please try to 
> disable legacy USB emulation in your BIOS, and see if the problem 
> persists? (it will make USB keyboard unavailable in grub).

If the drivers are set up properly in the initrd image, this shouldn't 
be a problem.  Still, it's worth testing.  A good test would be to use 
two keyboards, one attached to the PS2 port for typing in the 
decryption key and one attached to the adapter.  Does the second 
keyboard work after the kernel has finished starting up?

If it doesn't, does "rmmod ehci ; modprobe ehci" make any difference?  

Also, once the kernel is running, it is possible to fire up usbmon and
see what it reveals.

Alan Stern

Re: Wonkiness with keyboard adapter - not sure if it's in USB or input systems

[Dr. David Alan Gilbert]

* Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu (Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu) wrote:
> Running 2.6.39-rc1-mmotm at the moment on a Dell Latitude E6500, that wants an
> external USB keyboard/mouse and monitor when it's in its docking station in the
> office. I have an old Microsoft Natural keyboard that has a PS/2 connector, but
> I like the tactile feel so I didn't want to get rid of it.  So we recently got
> some PS2->USB adapters, which appear in lsusb as follows:
> 
> Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0e8f:0020 GreenAsia Inc. USB to PS/2 Adapter
> 
> Now, when I first power up the laptop in the docking station, it *does* see the
> keyboard just fine, and Grub is able to talk to it, and everything works (this
> particular boot, I was able to hit the space bar to get to the Grub menu, use
> arrow up/down to move between entries, all looked good).  So it isn't like the
> device needs any initialization above and beyond what the BIOS is doing at
> initial power-on.
> 
> However, when the Linux kernel starts up, it sees the adapter, but doesn't
> recognize key presses until I disconnect and then reconnect the keyboard:

I've experienced the same behaviour on at least two very different machines
(one a Tosh laptop, the other a Dell desktop), in both cases using a Model M
PS/2 keyboard connected to two different USB<->PS/2 converters (one a 
really ancient Belkin one and the other a recent no-name soap-on-a-rope type
thing).

Dave

-- 
 -----Open up your eyes, open up your mind, open up your code -------   
/ Dr. David Alan Gilbert    |       Running GNU/Linux       | Happy  \ 
\ gro.gilbert @ treblig.org |                               | In Hex /
 \ _________________________|_____ http://www.treblig.org   |_______/