# Keyboard produces garbage



## balanga (May 30, 2021)

I was trying to boot FreeBSD on an old ThinkPad T30 and encountered problems using the keyboard. The system boots up OK but at the login prompt arbitrary numbers/digits, sometimes in twos appear when I try typing anything.

I thought it maybe a faulty keyboard problem, but I tried running Arch Linux on the same machine and had no such issue.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?


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## Vull (May 30, 2021)

Login prompt? On the virtual terminals, or at a window manager login? Which FreeBSD version and/or display manager?


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## balanga (May 30, 2021)

Vull said:


> Login prompt? On the virtual terminals, or at a window manager login? Which FreeBSD version and/or display manager?


It was happening on boot, no window manager.

I thought it was some sort of hardware error as I had been messing with the machine, but I've installed FreeBSD from scratch and there is no problem, so... false alarm, sorry.


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## balanga (May 31, 2021)

I've just 'unsolved' this thread as I've found the problem mentioned to have recurred.

After formatting an existing partition and extracting kernel and base txz onto it and booting from it, the system stopped at the mountroot prompt since there is no /etc/fstab in the distribution files.

When trying to type *uf*s this came up *\\]]*

and then a panic and reboot.

This is with FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE i386 on an old ThinkPad T30.


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## balanga (May 31, 2021)

Going through the exact same procedure using FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE i386 using the same disk and the same machine does not cause the problem. I am able to enter *ufs:/dev/ada0p2* at the mountroot prompt and proceed to the login prompt where I can login normally.


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## balanga (Jun 2, 2021)

Just tried the same thing as in #5 but with FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE i386 and can login normally, so it does look like something in 13.0 which is causing the problem.


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## sko (Jun 2, 2021)

I've seen old Toughbooks with failing ribbon cables to the lid showing weird keyboard (and other) errors. Took me a while to figure this out, as they shouldn't be related to the keyboard in any way, but the problems disappeared after replacing the ribbon cable...
The keyboards themselves also have a foil pcb 'cable' which, depending on how unfortunate it was routed, might fail or slip out of its socket over the years.


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## balanga (Jun 2, 2021)

sko said:


> I've seen old Toughbooks with failing ribbon cables to the lid showing weird keyboard (and other) errors. Took me a while to figure this out, as they shouldn't be related to the keyboard in any way, but the problems disappeared after replacing the ribbon cable...
> The keyboards themselves also have a foil pcb 'cable' which, depending on how unfortunate it was routed, might fail or slip out of its socket over the years.


Whilst what you say is true it doesn't explain why the same system with same keyboard and hard disk has FreeBSD 12.0 and 12.2 booting up without any problem, whereas 13.0 has an unusable keyboard.


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## Erichans (Jun 2, 2021)

Got a USB keyboard? With that attached, what happens then with 13.0?


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## balanga (Jun 2, 2021)

Can you use a USB keyboard with a laptop?


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## Erichans (Jun 2, 2021)

Yes, try it!


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