weird problem installing S13+luks+lvm

[SultrySultan]

I'm installing Slackware 13 on a DELL OPTIPLEX 760.
I'm using Luks and LVM as per
http://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slackware/slackware-13.0/README_CRYPT.TXT
paragraph "Combining LUKS and LVM".

I've done it already on several machines, both laptops and desktops,
and never had a problem.

On this optiplex this is what happens.

1) I install all the packages except KDEI.
It installs all the packages, then freezes when the screen says
"UPDATING FONTCONFIG". At that point the keyboard is dead. Not even
the "CAPS LOCK" and "BLOC NUM" lights go on and off when i press the
buttons.

2) I install only the packages A and N.
The installation completes. I do the mkinitrd and lilo work for
luks+lvm. The machine reboots. By the time it gets at the
"Enter LUKS passphrase for /dev/sda2:" prompt, the keyboard is dead
as in case 1, and the red light on the belly of the optical mouse
goes has gone off a few seconds earlier, somewhere after the kernel
loading.

3) I install packages A and N, but without luks and lvm, on primary
partitions. Keyboard and mouse work flawlessly.

Any suggestion? What could freeze everything in cases 1 and 2?
TIA

[Douglas Mayne]

Caveat: I don't have a Dell Optiplex 760.

WAG: Is the Dell using a usb keyboard? If yes, then perhaps a BIOS option
for legacy mode may be necessary.

--
Douglas Mayne

[SultrySultan]

Douglas Mayne, on 11/18/2009 05:39 PM, wrote:

> Caveat: I don't have a Dell Optiplex 760.
>
> WAG: Is the Dell using a usb keyboard? If yes, then perhaps a
> BIOS option for legacy mode may be necessary.
>

Yes, USB keyboard, but no "legacy" option to choose in the bios
settings. However, I've disabled he USB floppy drive in the bios.
Now the installation completed, but on reboot the usb keyboard and
mouse go dead before the luks password is asked. I've run out of ideas.
This is the /var/log/messages file produced during the installation
from cd.
http://download300.mediafire.com/gs5skndmfvbg/jymy3ncy1jm/messages
I hope somebody can get some clue out of it.

Thanks for now.

[Martin Schmitz]

SultrySultan wrote:
> Yes, USB keyboard, but no "legacy" option to choose in the bios
> settings. However, I've disabled he USB floppy drive in the bios.
> Now the installation completed, but on reboot the usb keyboard and
> mouse go dead before the luks password is asked.

You have to put all usb keyboard related kernel modules in your initrd.
evdev, usb_hid, etc..

Martin

[SultrySultan]

Martin Schmitz, on 11/19/2009 05:35 PM, wrote:

> You have to put all usb keyboard related kernel modules in your initrd.
> evdev, usb_hid, etc..

Thanks Martin. Unfortunately I'm not that much into modules, so I've
tried
$ mknitrd ... -m ext4:evdev:usbid ...

This is the /boot/initrd-tree/load_kernel_modules file created:

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/lib/crc16.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/jbd2/jbd2.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ext4/ext4.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/input/evdev.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/hid.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/usbhid/usbhid.ko

I think I need some more modules, but haven't been able to find a
reliable reference on the subject. Can you point me to some page
which could bring me back into the light? :-)

In case it may help, this is the whole /boot/initrd-tree/ directory
created by mkinitrd:

http://download75.mediafire.com/j2myyydqyp0g/wdnjjy2dmtg/initrd-tree.tar.gz
(2,3 MB)

Thanks!

[Henrik Carlqvist]

SultrySultan <sul...@sult.an> wrote:
> Unfortunately I'm not that much into modules,

If so you might prefer to use the huge-smp kernel instead which has all
you need built in when it comes to USB and HID.

> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/lib/crc16.ko
> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/jbd2/jbd2.ko
> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ext4/ext4.ko
> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/input/evdev.ko
> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/hid.ko
> insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/usbhid/usbhid.ko
>
> I think I need some more modules, but haven't been able to find a
> reliable reference on the subject.

Maybe you need some driver for your usb chipset also. That could be
ehci.ko, uhci.ko or (more unlikely) ohci.ko.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc3(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost

[Douglas Mayne]

AFAICT, there might be specific kernel modules required for a specific
models of USB keyboards. For example, looking at the modules.dep file, I
see the dependancies for the hid-logitech module is the top level module
which relies on the others you listed (usbhid, hid). I would
assume there is some generic USB keyboard module, too. Unfortunately, I
don't have any real experience with USB keyboards, except for the case
below with a lame "workaround." When this came up a couple of years ago
when my daughter installed a wireless USB keyboard, I just made sure
that she didn't throw away her PS2 keyboard. This allows her to
select the OS from one keyboard, and start using the wireless keyboard
when Linux has initialized it fully. Of course, this solution relies on
having a PS2 keyboard port, which may not be available. So, it's a pretty
lame solution...

--
Douglas Mayne

[SultrySultan]

BINGO!

Thanks everybody!

It all went in place with this:

$ mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.29.6-smp -m
ext4:evdev:usbhid:ehci-hcd:uhci-hcd:ohci-hcd -f ext4 -r
/dev/cryptvg/root -C /dev/sda2 -L -l xx

where "xx" is substituted with my keyboard layout.
Probably it could work without some of the modules
ext4:evdev:usbhid:..., but I don't want to waste any more time
to try and find out which one(s) I could do without.

This is the resulting /boot/initrd-tree/load_kernel_modules file:

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/lib/crc16.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/jbd2/jbd2.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ext4/ext4.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/input/evdev.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/hid.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/usbhid/usbhid.ko

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ehci-hcd.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/host/uhci-hcd.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia_core.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/pcmcia.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/ssb/ssb.ko
insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ohci-hcd.ko