USB keyboard doesn't work with Debian installer

Question

I have a wired USB keyboard. I've written the latest netinstall Wheezy image on my USB pendrive (using dd). It boots but the installer doesn't recognize the keyboard! (The same pendrive works on my laptop) I am guessing my motherboard is no longer supported by this installer. How can I make the keyboard work with the installer?

Solution 1

I can not reply to damn's comment, but adding iommu=soft solved it for me too. I tried with the noapic nolapic options and wih the IOMMU fom the bios and all failed.

Simply follow the same steps as described by slm but add iommu=soft on the start command line instead of noapic nolapic.

Solution 2

Solved for me by changing IOMMU in BIOS

There was no need for me to append the install.cfg. I went into my BIOS and enabled IOMMU (in newer BIOS this may be called Intel Virtualization Technology or Intel VT - Check your chipset, name varies).

My specific issue was installing crunchbang (64) and my wireless k350 keyboard and mouse was not working with the Unity Receiver during install (it booted the installer fine, but as soon as you click install the mouse/keyboard went off). Saved me a trip to Walmart for a cheap keyboard which probably wouldn't work.

Comments

[Admin]

did you check your BIOS settings? legacy USB should be also enabled.

[şaloma]

@bersch it's always enabled.

[şaloma]

How do I bring up the boot prompt?

[slm]

I believe it's under the "Advanced Options" debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/sect.installation-steps.h‌​tml

[şaloma]

that's out of the question (keyboard doesn't work on that menu). i'd better try adding noapic and nolapic to the GRUB config file. but: how is editing GRUB on my hdd affects the installer which boots from USB? i mean GRUB isn't even used when I boot from USB.

[slm]

@Infestor - I've not tried it directly but looking at the docs you should be able to get at te :boot prompt during installation: debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch05s01.html.en. See section 5.1.5.

[slm]

@Infestor - see my updates that show how to modify the USB media to include the boot options.

[drs]

Can you elaborate? How/where did you append this?