Newbee needs help!!

Richard Pearce

New Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2017
Messages
24
Reaction score
2
Credits
158
After updating my ubuntu 20.04 on my acer aspire E 15 w/8GB DDR3,pentiumN3530(quad core) 250 SSD my keyboard stop working,any hints???
 


G'day @Richard Pearce :)

neither of these solutions worked.

You haven't specified what did not work, can you elaborate?

For example with Old Tom's 1st link, did you get as far as Case 3 or Case which.

Did you get to make the change to Grub Menu?

And more, please.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

BTW, what is the status of the mouse and trackpad, and are you able to launch a virtual keyboard?
 
G'day @Richard Pearce :)



You haven't specified what did not work, can you elaborate?

For example with Old Tom's 1st link, did you get as far as Case 3 or Case which.

Did you get to make the change to Grub Menu?

And more, please.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

BTW, what is the status of the mouse and trackpad, and are you able to launch a virtual keyboard?
i tried case 1&2 but that didn't help. My touch pad & keyboard don't work but the mouse does. Tried case 3 but none of the keys work. Please help.
 
G'day @Richard Pearce :)



You haven't specified what did not work, can you elaborate?

For example with Old Tom's 1st link, did you get as far as Case 3 or Case which.

Did you get to make the change to Grub Menu?

And more, please.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

BTW, what is the status of the mouse and trackpad, and are you able to launch a virtual keyboard?
Because neither touchpad & keyboard work, I'm unable to get into Grub Menu @ start up,please help.
 
Richard, are you dualbooting with Windows, or are you just running Ubuntu?

What are you using currently to log in to this site and send us messages.

It is better to tell us too much, than not enough :)

Wizard
 
I'm using Ubuntu20.04 only. The on screen keyboard to log in.
Richard, are you dualbooting with Windows, or are you just running Ubuntu?

What are you using currently to log in to this site and send us messages.

It is better to tell us too much, than not enough :)

Wizard
I'm using Ubuntu 20.04 only & the on screen keyboard to log in.
 
OK that's good you've given us that.

So I'll list a few things and you correct me if I am mistaken, significantly, in any of them, won't you?

1. You have an Acer Aspire E15, a fairly moden laptop, and its specs will look something like this:

CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U (6MB cache, up to 3.4GHz)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5 VRAM); Intel UHD Graphics 620
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) LED-backlit display
Storage: 256GB SSD
Ports: USB Type-C, 2 x USB 3.0, USB 2.0, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet RJ-45, headphone/mic combo jack, SD card reader, Kensington Lock
Optical Drive: 8X DVD-Writer DL Drive
Connectivity: Dual Band 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1
Camera: 1,280 x 720 webcam

That will be UEFI-based, rather than BIOS-MBR. May have had Windows 10 on it originally.

2. Being that you have only Ubuntu on it, you likely do not have a Grub Menu at startup. Have you seen a Grub Menu before? It will likely look something like this

...
MPdJTY8.png


SCREENSHOT 1 - BASIC UBUNTU GRUB MENU

By default that will be invisible to you, but at an appropriate time we may want to access that.

Referring to the first of the links Old Tom provided above, which was

https://techtips.easycloudsolutions...fix-keyboard-not-working-after-ubuntu-update/

... it said, in part

While, the system is starting up, hold down the Shift key after the BIOS load and you will enter the GRUB menu. On the GRUB menu, press “e” to edit boot options.

That is not entirely correct.

You use the Shift key with BIOS-MBR based computers.

With a UEFI computer, try the Esc (Escape) key.


3. You have said you can use the onboard screen keyboard, both at login and on the desktop. We can make use of that to have you type in a couple of commands at Terminal and provide us the output.

Your trackpad, also, does not work (did it before?) but you have a working mouse.

The updates you performed likely included an update to the Linux kernel, and we can verify that if need be.

We want to either eliminate or include the possibility that the newer kernel has dropped support for your keyboard, although if the laptop is fairly modern, that is unlikely. If the kernel change is not responsible, then we have to look at the possibility of other software update/s having caused the problem, and take appropriate action.

What I would like you to do for your next Post is to issue the following command from Terminal and provide us the output. Any comments I make between commands will be prefaced with a hash.

Code:
uname -mrs

# and then followed with

ls /boot

# that's a lowercase L, ls is like "list the contents of"


Mine, on Ubuntu 20.04 look like this

Code:
chris@FocalGNOME-SSD:~$ uname -mrs
Linux 5.4.0-45-generic x86_64

# and

chris@FocalGNOME-SSD:~$ ls /boot
config-5.4.0-42-generic      memtest86+.elf
config-5.4.0-45-generic      memtest86+_multiboot.bin
efi                          System.map-5.4.0-42-generic
grub                         System.map-5.4.0-45-generic
initrd.img                   vmlinuz
initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic  vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic
initrd.img-5.4.0-45-generic  vmlinuz-5.4.0-45-generic
initrd.img.old               vmlinuz.old
memtest86+.bin

So, again from that 1st link Old Tom posted, at step 5 is a similar position I need you to be in to perform this task - unlike the picture, you can just modify your Terminal window to make it totally visible above the keyboard.

XvAiTt4.png


SHOT 2 - Terminal in view, and virtual keyboard, to provide output

If you have your Browser (Firefox or other) open and logged in at the time to here, you can use your mouse and drag it over the text to highlight, then right-click and choose Copy, and then paste it into your linux.org reply pane.

If you can do that, we can go on with more steps.

Cheers

Wizard
 
1599682653258.png

as per the 1st. post /8GB DDR3,pentiumN3530(quad core) @ 2.16GHz,251 GB SSD Ubuntu 20.04.The laptop is 8 - 10 yrs. old had originally Windows 8.1. In terminal I tried step 5 & entered the install xserver etc. to no avail. I use the keyboard from my desktop entered esc key & got into GRUB menu for case 5 to add /bin/bash & again to no avail. What next?
 
Last edited:
Don't know how to revert back to the previous kernel. Can you help?
Have you tried to revert back to a kernel which did work before the update?
Do you have a few old kernels lying around not doing much?
file:
Screenshot from 2020-09-12 08-34-31.png
This is the screen shot after Old Tom's case 2. This still doesn't cure my keyboard issue. Any more suggestions or fixes?
 
Last edited:
Richard

1. Are you able to access your BIOS setup at startup (usually pressing F2 or F12 etc.) and does the keyboard work within that environment? And does it allow for a mouse to be operated within it?

2. Do you still have the USB stick or DVD you used to install Ubuntu, and if not, can you generate one on another computer?

3. Do you have a lot of personal data, in particular, irreplaceable data, in your Home folder or Partition?

If you can answer those 3 questions to the fullest extent, that would be useful.

I am thinking the best option might be for a reinstall, then install Timeshift and take a snapshot, and then work through those updates to identify any culprit.

Cheers

Wizard
 
Don't know how to revert back to the previous kernel. Can you help?
file:View attachment 7258This is the screen shot after Old Tom's case 2. This still doesn't cure my keyboard issue. Any more suggestions or fixes?
Without a working keyboard at boot the problem becomes a little more involved.
Usually one would use the 'down' arrow key at the Grub boot menu to select a previous kernel but with no working keyboard that is not an option.

Therefore, if you have a working 'onscreen' keyboard after booting up then I think the solution will be to edit the Grub configuration. There are a number of tutorials outlining how to do this so I will forego repeating it here. Following are some links to check out and read.

One option which 'may' work would be to uninstall the newest kernel utilizing the Synaptic Package Manager and then running update-grub. I have not tried this myself and cannot confirm if it would be successful.

Another option which may be easier than manually configuring the Grub config is to install "Grub Customizer". Some people frown on the use of it but it may be the easiest solution to roll back to an earlier kernel. https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer

Be aware that editing the Grub config incorrectly can result in a failure to boot!

Here are some links which may be helpful:

P.S. Make sure you have backups of your data!

P.P.S. If you boot from your installation USB or disc which should be utilizing an older kernel does the keyboard work?
 
The answer to question 1 is the keyboard but not the mouse work in BIOS environment, I do have a USB stick with ubunto 18.04 ( upgraded from that to 20.04 ) & any important files are on a flash drive.
Richard

1. Are you able to access your BIOS setup at startup (usually pressing F2 or F12 etc.) and does the keyboard work within that environment? And does it allow for a mouse to be operated within it?

2. Do you still have the USB stick or DVD you used to install Ubuntu, and if not, can you generate one on another computer?

3. Do you have a lot of personal data, in particular, irreplaceable data, in your Home folder or Partition?

If you can answer those 3 questions to the fullest extent, that would be useful.

I am thinking the best option might be for a reinstall, then install Timeshift and take a snapshot, and then work through those updates to identify any culprit.

Cheers
Richard

1. Are you able to access your BIOS setup at startup (usually pressing F2 or F12 etc.) and does the keyboard work within that environment? And does it allow for a mouse to be operated within it?

2. Do you still have the USB stick or DVD you used to install Ubuntu, and if not, can you generate one on another computer?

3. Do you have a lot of personal data, in particular, irreplaceable data, in your Home folder or Partition?

If you can answer those 3 questions to the fullest extent, that would be useful.

I am thinking the best option might be for a reinstall, then install Timeshift and take a snapshot, and then work through those updates to identify any culprit.

Cheers

Wizard
The answer to question 1 is the keyboard but not the mouse work in BIOS environment. I have a USB stick with ubuntu 18.04 ( upgraded from to 20.04 ) & any important files or on a flash drive.
Wizard
 
Without a working keyboard at boot the problem becomes a little more involved.
Usually one would use the 'down' arrow key at the Grub boot menu to select a previous kernel but with no working keyboard that is not an option.

Therefore, if you have a working 'onscreen' keyboard after booting up then I think the solution will be to edit the Grub configuration. There are a number of tutorials outlining how to do this so I will forego repeating it here. Following are some links to check out and read.

One option which 'may' work would be to uninstall the newest kernel utilizing the Synaptic Package Manager and then running update-grub. I have not tried this myself and cannot confirm if it would be successful.

Another option which may be easier than manually configuring the Grub config is to install "Grub Customizer". Some people frown on the use of it but it may be the easiest solution to roll back to an earlier kernel. https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer

Be aware that editing the Grub config incorrectly can result in a failure to boot!

Here are some links which may be helpful:

P.S. Make sure you have backups of your data!

P.P.S. If you boot from your installation USB or disc which should be utilizing an older kernel does the keyboard work?
I looked at reverting back to previous kernel but that is way to much for a newbie like me with limited computer skills.
 
After updating my ubuntu 20.04 on my acer aspire E 15 w/8GB DDR3,pentiumN3530(quad core) 250 SSD my keyboard stop working,any hints???
In your original post you say "After updating my ubuntu 20.04" - does that mean you had Ubuntu 20.04 installed and running fine, everything worked, and then after an update the keyboard stopped working?

I ask because sometimes people confuse "upgrading" with "updating".
I looked at reverting back to previous kernel but that is way to much for a newbie like me with limited computer skills.
Well, if the keyboard worked during the Grub menu screen it would have been 'easy-peasy' :(
I think perhaps the easiest solution may therefore be to re-install Ubuntu.
I do have a USB stick with ubunto 18.04 ( upgraded from that to 20.04 )
Do you know if the Ubuntu 20.04 on that stick works well for you?
 
In your original post you say "After updating my ubuntu 20.04" - does that mean you had Ubuntu 20.04 installed and running fine, everything worked, and then after an update the keyboard stopped working?

I ask because sometimes people confuse "upgrading" with "updating".

Well, if the keyboard worked during the Grub menu screen it would have been 'easy-peasy' :(
I think perhaps the easiest solution may therefore be to re-install Ubuntu.

Do you know if the Ubuntu 20.04 on that stick works well for you?
I upgraded for 18.04 to 20.04 6 mos. ago & had many updates since but the last update caused my keyboard & touch pad to stop working.
 


Top