Add USB Keyboard to Sheevaplug (Debian 2.6)?

Question

Totally unfamiliar with Linux, I try to add a USB keyboard to a Sheevaplug headless ARM computer running Linux debian 2.6.22.18

Accessing the Sheevaplug from a shell (remote, via Ethernet) ...

login as: root
root@192.168.20.108's password:
Linux debian 2.6.22.18 #1 Thu Mar 19 14:46:22 IST 2009 armv5tejl

root@debian:~#

... the (local) USB keyboard seems to have been recognized ...

root@debian:~# cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046a Product=0023 Version=0111
N: Name="HID 046a:0023"
P: Phys=usb-ehci_marvell.70059-1/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd
B: EV=120003
B: KEY=7 ff800000 7ff e0b2ffdf 1cfffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: LED=1f

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046a Product=0023 Version=0111
N: Name="HID 046a:0023"
P: Phys=usb-ehci_marvell.70059-1/input1
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd
B: EV=f
B: KEY=7fff 2c3027 bf004440 0 0 1 f80 8837c400 667bfa d971dfed 9e0000 0 0 0
B: REL=40
B: ABS=1 0

root@debian:~#

... but pressing keys on the local USB keyboard does not display anything ...

root@debian:~#

Any Ideas?

Regards, tamberg

Answer 1

Why would you expect keystrokes on a local shell to show up in a remote shell? This is not how it works on any system. You would need to attach a display to the sheeva plug in order to use a local shell. I don't think this has anything to do with the drivers being loaded and everything to do with misunderstanding how the shell works.

Answer 2

Per default local input does not show up in the remote shell. As stated in

http://superuser.com/questions/92147/linux-redirect-local-usb-keyboard-to-remote-shell

a simple way to check from the remote shell that the local USB keyboard works is

cat /dev/tty0

Regards, tamberg

Answer 3

Just a thought:

The latest version of the kernel is 2.6.32, therefore 2.6.22 seems a little old, or was that a typo?

I don't recall when USB keyboard support was added to the kernel, I simply know it's a relatively recent thing.

This may be nothing to do with your keyboard problem, but I notice

P: Phys=usb-ehci_marvell.70059-1/input0

in your question. I remember having trouble with a USB2.0 external HDD at about the time of 2.6.22 and it was necessary to use insmod to load an 'ehci' kernel module before it would run at usb2.0 speed.

EDIT: I found a Linux USB FAQ which included the following:

If you are using Linux 2.4, don't expect community assistance unless you first upgrade to a recent 2.6 kernel. If you're using any kernel that old, you should probably have some sort of vendor support agreement to handle issues that come up. If you are using UHCI on a 2.4 kernel, try to reproduce the problem with the "other" UHCI host controller driver (HCD). There are currently two UHCI drivers, which don't always behave the same: usb-uhci and uhci (the "alt" or "JE" driver). If you find that you have a workaround, please still report the problem! And make sure you say which HCD(s) you're using.

Q: How do I make USB be detected on my machine?

A: If you are sure that you actually have a suitable hardware setup, look for a BIOS option that could be applicable. It might be labelled as USB, or it might be more obscure, discussing Plug-n-Play, or having options for various types of operating systems. You may need to try various combinations. Unless you rely on a USB keyboard or mouse during booting, it's probably safest to disable support for those in your BIOS; lots of BIOS writers seem to get that wrong, making trouble when Linux tries to take over USB.

Hmmm, still talks about UHCI. I wish it was a bit more specific than 'recent 2.6 kernel'

There is a suggestion here that kernels 2.6.23.x up to 2.6.28.x are needed. But, again, it's vague.