a question for a linux expert

Alonte · **Joined:** Jun 04, 2011 **Posts:** 254

after looking for a linux distro that i like, i found linux lite,i want to stick with it but i keep having this problem when I power my laptop up (Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7223), when It gets to the login screen much of the time I won't have any keyboard or touchpad.I can plug in a usb mouse and then at least restart or shut the laptop down and then keep trying until it works correctly, but I don't like having to do that. is there a way to fix this?

as always thanks in advance.

saulgoode · **Posted:** Wed Sep 11, 2013 9:50 pm **(#2)**

Do other OSes work on this computer? Have you tried a different GNU/Linux distro? Does the keyboard work when you are in the BIOS setup?

My blind dart would be directed at a faulty graphics pad, causing the keyboard to be drowned out.

Alonte · **Joined:** Jun 04, 2011 **Posts:** 254

saulgoode wrote:

Do other OSes work on this computer? Have you tried a different GNU/Linux distro? Does the keyboard work when you are in the BIOS setup?

My blind dart would be directed at a faulty graphics pad, causing the keyboard to be drowned out.

It worked well in fedora,linux mint and a few other OSes i've tried, it works well when doing the installation
but when i go to login the keyboard and mousepad won't work. It seem to only happen with Ubuntu based
distros the first time it happened os when i installed ubuntu 12.04,12.10 and 13.04 and this one which is
based off 12.04 i think.

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4812

Mint is Ubuntu-based...

As to your problem; look here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/To ... 775D_S7340

Code: Select all

 Troubleshooting
Touchpad and keyboard are not working

The solution is to add i8042.nomux=1 i8042.reset to the end of the kernel line of the grub menu config at /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Example:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda3 ro i8042.nomux=1 i8042.reset nomodeset quiet vga=0
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img

Just googling for "Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7223 linux" :rofl

Alonte · **Joined:** Jun 04, 2011 **Posts:** 254

ofnuts wrote:

Just googling for "Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7223 linux"

that's the thing i'm still new at working with linux, I don't know how to edit the code
how do i do it?

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4812

With a tool called a text editor...

The Grub config requires care because it' actually rebuilt for you so in practice you edit another file: /etc/default/grub and add these options to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT.

And since /etc/default/grub cannot be edit by JoeUser, you have to become root to edit it:
Gnome: gksu gedit /etc/default/grub
KDE: kdesudo kate /etc/default/grub

Then you rebuild the grub config ("sudo update-grub" in some terminal session).

This said you should really register in some Linux support forum (ubuntuforums is pretty good if you use ubuntu or a derivative).

rich2005 · **Joined:** Mar 04, 2011 **Posts:** 2625

Linux-lite is listed in distrowatch as just 'lite', ubuntu based with an xfce DM.

It uses grub2 and the above code is very definitely (legacy-) grub.

So you need to look for the equivalent file which is /boot/grub/grub.cfg

then the fun begins. The start and end of this file is labeled

Code: Select all

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
.........snip......

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-28-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
   recordfail
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,1)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7f05c987-3f53-4076-895c-6dfdced3367b
   linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic root=UUID=7f05c987-3f53-4076-895c-6dfdced3367b ro   splash quiet
   initrd   /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-28-generic
........snip....

Which of course is not true, you can edit it. Use a simple text editor such as leafpad as root
do make a backup of the file before editing..

so you could maybe edit a line to look like this

Code: Select all

linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic root=UUID=7f05c987-3f53-4076-895c-6dfdced3367b ro  i8042.nomux=1 i8042.reset nomodeset quiet vga=0 splash quiet

Not really for the beginner. If you try it have a recovery plan in case you screw up

On the other hand

Ubuntu(s) are usually good at finding hardware so it is strange that this keyboard problem should occur.
but
Many other distos equally good with hardware, most of which have xfce / LXDE / E17 DM's which look as good or better and are not stuck with the buggy Gimp 2.8.4

edit: Ofnuts above post is probably a better (more correct) solution.