[SOLVED] Keyboard and mouse on USB 2.0 dead with 990fx/sb950
Posted: 2013/09/30 13:34:11
To The Community,
To start, thanks for your help in advance. Now for the problem. I have a new Gigabyte - 990FXA-UD3 rev. 4.0 motherboard that I'm having a bit of a problem with Keyboard and mouse losing functionally plugged into USB 2.0 after the bios hands off control over to the CentOS 6.4 OS (Operating System). Let me give a further more explicit description. The motherboard comes with the new UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) simply put a GUI (Graphic User Interface) for the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The mouse and keyboard are fully functional within the BIOS, but once the BIOS posts and hands over control to CentOS it ceases functionality to what I'm guessing is USB 2.0 controller. The following is what I have ended up with.
# Install from DVD #
- Bios starts and boots CentOS 6.4 (64 Bit) to the installation menu. Note: Keyboard still works at this point.
- I select "Install or Upgrade an Existing System"
- 16 seconds after selecting the above; the keyboard num-lock LED and mouse Optical LED turns off. This tells me the installer has dropped functionality of both devices.
- "testing the media" screen appears but keyboard is dead, and I can not make any selections.
Workarounds
Option 1
- PS2 interface still works - I can continue the installation - Please read on...
Option 2
- USB 3.0 interface still works - I can continue the installation with both USB keyboard and mouse plugged into USB 3.0 slots - Please read on...
# Once CentOS is installed the USB 2.0 still has no functionality & more strange problems #
- System will boot up and I can login with Keyboard and Mouse plugged into USB 3.0
>>
- Still no USB 2.0 support - Completely dead - No Mouse, No Keyboard, No Flash Drive etc.
- Mouse functionality on USB 3.0 is flaky at best - Mouse crashes and freezes often
- Strangely the onboard network card fails to work also - This problem might need it's own forum thread
# Conclusion #
I believe I have multiple problems here. I would prefer to start troubleshooting the USB 2.0 problem first. But my Linux troubleshooting skills are novice at best. Searching the web I found an explanation to what might be the issue. The BIOS uses "Real Mode" 16 bit interrupts whereas more advanced systems such as Linux drop control of those interrupts and transition to "Protected mode" 32 bit or "Long Mode" 64 bit interrupts. This tells me that maybe the CentOS Kernel might not fully support 990FX Northbridge or more precisely the Kernel might not support the 950 Southbridge where the USB 2.0 devices connect to. I might even be wrong about the Kernel and maybe the system is simply missing the modules (Drivers) to function properly. I'm at a lose here. Can anyone tell me how to even start to troubleshot this or enlighten me on how to solve these issues.
Thanks
To start, thanks for your help in advance. Now for the problem. I have a new Gigabyte - 990FXA-UD3 rev. 4.0 motherboard that I'm having a bit of a problem with Keyboard and mouse losing functionally plugged into USB 2.0 after the bios hands off control over to the CentOS 6.4 OS (Operating System). Let me give a further more explicit description. The motherboard comes with the new UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) simply put a GUI (Graphic User Interface) for the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The mouse and keyboard are fully functional within the BIOS, but once the BIOS posts and hands over control to CentOS it ceases functionality to what I'm guessing is USB 2.0 controller. The following is what I have ended up with.
# Install from DVD #
- Bios starts and boots CentOS 6.4 (64 Bit) to the installation menu. Note: Keyboard still works at this point.
- I select "Install or Upgrade an Existing System"
- 16 seconds after selecting the above; the keyboard num-lock LED and mouse Optical LED turns off. This tells me the installer has dropped functionality of both devices.
- "testing the media" screen appears but keyboard is dead, and I can not make any selections.
Workarounds
Option 1
- PS2 interface still works - I can continue the installation - Please read on...
Option 2
- USB 3.0 interface still works - I can continue the installation with both USB keyboard and mouse plugged into USB 3.0 slots - Please read on...
# Once CentOS is installed the USB 2.0 still has no functionality & more strange problems #
- System will boot up and I can login with Keyboard and Mouse plugged into USB 3.0
>>
- Still no USB 2.0 support - Completely dead - No Mouse, No Keyboard, No Flash Drive etc.
- Mouse functionality on USB 3.0 is flaky at best - Mouse crashes and freezes often
- Strangely the onboard network card fails to work also - This problem might need it's own forum thread
# Conclusion #
I believe I have multiple problems here. I would prefer to start troubleshooting the USB 2.0 problem first. But my Linux troubleshooting skills are novice at best. Searching the web I found an explanation to what might be the issue. The BIOS uses "Real Mode" 16 bit interrupts whereas more advanced systems such as Linux drop control of those interrupts and transition to "Protected mode" 32 bit or "Long Mode" 64 bit interrupts. This tells me that maybe the CentOS Kernel might not fully support 990FX Northbridge or more precisely the Kernel might not support the 950 Southbridge where the USB 2.0 devices connect to. I might even be wrong about the Kernel and maybe the system is simply missing the modules (Drivers) to function properly. I'm at a lose here. Can anyone tell me how to even start to troubleshot this or enlighten me on how to solve these issues.
Thanks