Keyboard and Mouse stop working after undefined time

[Netraam]

Lately (last week or so), my mouse and keyboard have both stopped working after some time (no fixed amount of time as far as I can tell).

The only way I can continue using my computer is shutting the whole thing down and restarting it. To date this has only happened while browsing the internet (although not the same sites).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If more information is needed don't hesitate to ask, but please add detailed how tos as I'm not a computer guru, in any sense of the word.

Thanks in advance

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

There are a few other basic things that need to be included here. Starting with the least difficult, please include what model and manufacture your computer is, what version of ubuntu you are using, and whether the keyboard and mouse are connected via USB, or bluetooth, or in the case of a laptop, built in. After you add these the next steps can be determined, as the form of connection that the mouse and keyboard use determines what the next troubleshooting step is.

  Feel free to contact me if you have any issues with finding any of this information.

~qbalazs

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

The information you asked for:

Manufacturer: Dell
Model: XPS-8300
OS: Ubuntu 13.04

Both mouse and keyboard attach via USB.

Thanks for helping me out... its much appreciated, as this is a very frustrating issue.

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

Okay, so with USB keyboard and mouse issues there are a few logs that need to be attached.

Run the following commands one at a time in a terminal window. Just pasting them from here into it should work fine.

lsusb -v > ~/lsusb-v
uname -a > ~/uname-a
cat /proc/version_signature > ~/version_signature
sudo lspci -vvnn > ~/lspci-vvnn (This one will ask for an admin password as it uses sudo)

And attach the following output logs to the bug report. All these should be found by navigating to the root filesystem, but these are the paths for them.

~/lsusb-v, ~/uname-a, ~/version_signature and ~/lspci-vvnn

These are just general logs, for your particular issue, you will need an additional mouse and keyboard, preferably not connected by USB. Connect the additional mouse and keyboard before powering on your machine. Once logged in, the first thing you should do is to open a terminal window and enter the following commands: dmesg > ~/dmesg_boot and cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log ~/Xorg.0.log.

Now comes the part where the extra mouse and keyboard comes into play. Wait for your primary mouse or keyboard to stop working, then, on the 2nd keyboard press ctrl+alt+f1 to open a virtual terminal window, in that terminal enter the following commands one at a time (once again you can just paste them over):

LANG=C
dmesg > ~/dmesg
diff -ns ~/dmesg_boot ~/dmesg > ~/dmesg_diff
cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log ~/Xorg.0.log_tmp
diff -ns ~/Xorg.0.log ~/Xorg.0.log_tmp > ~/Xorg.0.log_diff

This has to be done when the primary keyboard isn't working so that dmesg and Xorg can collect information about what went wrong with it. After finishing those commands, attach the following log files to the report, again, here are the paths for them:

~/dmesg_boot, ~/dmesg_diff, ~/Xorg.0.log and ~/Xorg.0.log_diff.

And that should give enough information for the problem to be weeded out.

As always, If you have any issues with these directions, feel free to contact me through launchpad, or ask for help in irc at either #ubuntu-bugs or #ubuntu-X

~Quinn Balazs

(also this bug is an Xorg issue and is hereby marked that way)

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Attached are the first set of log files you requested... the rest to follow as soon as the issue rears its ugly head again.

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Slight issue... while I still own a non-USB keyboard (PS/2) my PC no longer has a PS/2 socket.

Will the log files after a reboot still be relevant, or are there some additional steps I need to take to ensure the correct info is logged?

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

Before trying this, attempt to switch to a virtual terminal using the frozen keyboard on the off chance that that hotkey combo still is received. If that works just execute the commands there, but if not you will have to do the following:

They will not contain relevant information after reboot, so what you will have to do will involve another machine on the same wireless or wired network. Install the package openssh-server (sudo apt-get install openssh-server) on the pc that has the issue, and then ssh into it to run the relevant commands. If the other machine uses Windows you will need to install putty.exe from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html. If the other machine uses either Linux or MacOS you can use the command: ssh user@hostname. With user being your account name and host being the IP address of the affected Ubuntu machine.

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

Also, just as something that I noticed looking over the logs that you already provided, is there an integrated keyboard and touchpad included with the machine? And if there is, do those cease functioning when the USB keyboard and mouse do. It does however look like everything is normally detected properly and is functioning properly while it is in use. More information will come from dmesg.

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Tried using Ctrl + Alt + F1 after latest failure, to no avail.

Failure logs successfully created via SSH are attached.

There is no integrated keyboard or touchpad on this machine.

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

Confirmed that something is seriously wrong here. Are you using any sort of USB hub, or only the onboard USB ports? But for all intents and purposes it seems to be an X problem, where evdev isn't loaded along with the mouse and keyboard, leading to the them being ignored because an input device was not specified. The next thing to look at would be why it's doing this after a period of time. I am working on that and will get back to you once I've figured out what particularly is to fault with the devices are "refreshing" themselves and having to be reloaded.

Quinn Balazs

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

I'm not using any USB hubs except for those built into the machine.

Hope to hear back from you soon with some positive feedback.
On 20 Aug 2013 01:10, "Quinn Balazs" <email address hidden> wrote:

> Confirmed that something is seriously wrong here. Are you using any sort
> of USB hub, or only the onboard USB ports? But for all intents and
> purposes it seems to be an X problem, where evdev isn't loaded along
> with the mouse and keyboard, leading to the them being ignored because
> an input device was not specified. The next thing to look at would be
> why it's doing this after a period of time. I am working on that and
> will get back to you once I've figured out what particularly is to fault
> with the devices are "refreshing" themselves and having to be reloaded.
>
>
> Quinn Balazs
>
>
> ** Changed in: xorg (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1211207
>
> Title:
> Keyboard and Mouse stop working after undefined time
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1211207/+subscriptions
>

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Dear Debugging Experts, (most notably Quinn Balazs)

This issue has now transcended the merely annoying, and entered into the realm of a 'right pain in the ass'. For this reason I'm planning on doing a clean install to see if the situation is helped any by this...

Before I do so however, is there any other information that I can provide to help resolve this problem. If so please let me know asap

Labeeuw Maarten

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

You've given all of the relevant information. Let us know if the fresh install works for you. If it doesn't then we will take a more earnest look into what might be going on.

Quinn Balazs

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

So after the tedious process of backing up all of my data, and doing a clean install I'm sorry to say that the issue is still there...

I have found that I don't need to completely shut down my system I can just suspend it to get things working again ... which leads me to believe that this really is a software glitch and not a hardware one...

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

If suspend fixes it, then it would seem that it is a kernel issue. Would you mind booting into the latest Mainline Build of the kernel, as that will verify that it is the root cause. Instructions on how to boot into the mainline build can be found here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

I'm more than willing to try anything you can suggest, including booting into the latest Mainline Build of the kernel. I looked at the link you sent and have to confess that I'm somewhat confounded... first of there seem to be 5 different mainline kernel builds I can pick from, so which do I chose? Also from what I've read, I need to select one specifically for my system, how do I go about making this choice.

I should maybe also clarify, when I said suspend fixed the issue, I meant temporarily... ie after some unqualified amount of time the issue does rear its ugly head again.

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

ps my current kernel is

$ uname -r
3.8.0-30-generic

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

I have been keeping track of the failures as they occur and the seem to happen on average approximately every 15 mins... although this is by no means always the case the average is nearly exactly 15 mins... I find it hard to believe that this is a coincidence.

Also once again some help would be appreciated in pointing out which Mainline kernel build I should attempt to use.

Via updates I have had a change in my kernel, but the issue persists. Current kernel is:

$ uname -r
3.8.0-31-generic

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Just upgraded to Ubuntu 13.10 in the hope that this would rectify the issue... sadly not

$ uname -r
3.11.0-12-generic

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

This needs to be tested/retested with an upstream mainline kernel build. Please see here http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=M;O=D for upstream builds and here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds for instructions on installing them. Test this with 3.11.6-saucy in order to figure out if this is fixed upstream. If you have the time and patience it would be nice to also know where this issue first crops up. That would entail testing -saucy kernel builds (no rc) from the present back until about July 29th. Once you have at least tested the Oct 18th 3.11.6-saucy build, please set the status here back to confirmed, and replace the tag "needs-upstream-testing" to either "kernel-fixed-upstream" if the issue is fixed in 3.11.6-saucy, or "kernel-exists-upstream". My hunch here is the issue exists upstream, which is why changes here haven't impacted the problem at all.

Quinn Balazs

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Tested 3.11.6-031106-generic (saucy), sadly issue persists.

I have also changed the status back to "Confirmed", and the tag to "kernel-exists-upstream", as per your instructions.

I shall endeavour to do the testing you requested when, and as, I find the time.

Thanks for the help to date.

[Andrea Mazzilli (andrea-mazzilli)]

This bug affect me too...

Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit
3.11.0-12-generic
Intel Pentium G630
Intel Sandybridge Graphics
USB Keyboard and Mouse

[Quinn Balazs (qbalazs)]

Andrea,

Thank you for trying to keep this issue consolidated to one report, but with many bugs (kernel issues especially) exact system configuration matters a tremendous amount. With this issue, even if the symptoms are the same, the root cause of the problem may be different. See comment #3 for the logs that would need to be collected, and under what circumstances they will need to be collected.

I'd rather treat your issue as a different problem altogether, rather than lumping it in here. So, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to ask you to open a new bug against the "linux" package, subscribe me (qbalazs) to the report. Once you've done that, I'll post the instructions for gathering the needed logs.

Quinn Balazs

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Okay here goes nothing...

I've tested the following Mainline builds for x86_64 as per your request all without success:

3.11.6-saucy
3.10.4-saucy
3.10.3-saucy
3.10.2-saucy
3.9.11-saucy
3.8-raring
3.7-raring

I'm totally confounded at this point and incredibly frustrated... I switched to Linux for stability, but at this point I'm thinking I can live with Windows again.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Netraam, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.13-rc2

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Dear Christopher,

Sadly yes I am still plagued by this issue. I am however not at home and
wing be for the rest of the year (2013). Upon my return I shall do as you
suggested and install the latest release.

Thanks for following up on this issue. I would dearly like for this to be
solved as it is a downright nuisance.

Regards Maarten
On 1 Dec 2013 09:55, "Christopher M. Penalver" <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Netraam, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any
> activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If
> so, could you please test for this with the latest development release
> of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com
> /daily-live/current/ .
>
> If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in
> the development release from a Terminal
> (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather
> and attach updated debug information to this report:
>
> apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>
>
> Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the
> daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It
> will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've
> tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version
> specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel,
> please add the following tags:
> kernel-fixed-upstream
> kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER
>
> where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For
> example:
> kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.13-rc2
>
> This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon
> next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As
> well, please remove the tag:
> needs-upstream-testing
>
> If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following
> tags:
> kernel-bug-exists-upstream
> kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER
>
> As well, please remove the tag:
> needs-upstream-testing
>
> Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's
> Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your
> understanding.
>
> ** Tags added: needs-kernel-logs regression-potential
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1211207
>
> Title:
> Keyboard and Mouse stop working after undefined time
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1211207/+subscriptions
>

[Netraam (maarten-labeeuw)]

Dearest all,

I come before you to humbly request clemency. It would appear I made a big booboo... After un-installing the entire system doing a fresh clean install, then un-installing again and installing various upstream kernels and then un-installing yet again an installing the much hated and loathed MS Windows, I finally thought to try out a new keyboard and mouse combo...

They work, they worked beautifully, all that unnecessary work for something as stupid as a damned faulty hardware issue. I do feel extra consideration should be taken when deliberating my sentencing, as this is the first time in over 20 years computer usage, that this type of on again, off again hardware issue has come up...

Once again my sincerest apologies for wasting you valuable time.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Andrea Mazzilli, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into a Ubuntu repository kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs