Keyboard on Dell 3440 does not work at registration prompt
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Hello Team
We just upgraded to fog 1.5.10 and when we try to register the laptop Dell 3440 the keyboard does not work at the hostname prompt.
Dell 3440 BIOS version is 1.8.0Note: It works on some and does not work on some laptops.
Any advice will be appreciated
Regards
Abolaji -
@abolajioriola Does not work (any keys typed no update) or does not work with your local language set? (guess you are in france but ipxe only recognizes US character sets?
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@george1421 Thank you for your response. I am in Canada. Any keys do not print any character on the screen. The workaround we found was to attach an external keyboard to the laptop through the USB. Since the laptop is made for the North American region, I would assume it is a US character. I checked the BIOS of the laptop and there is no where to change the language of the keyboard at that level
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@abolajioriola Ok that gives us a few more clues then, if an external keyboard works but onboard does not. Just to verify the onboard keyboard works within iPXE menu, such as when you go to image and iPXE asks for a user ID and password?
Just to be clear, before you pick any entry in the iPXE menu, iPXE kernel is managing the keyboard. When you pick an iPXE menu and bzImage is loaded, then the FOS Linux kernel is in charge of the keyboard. When inventory is running and asks you for a host name or other entries, that is FOS Linux.
So what I’m thinking here is that on the Dell 3440 computers, the keyboard is behind some bit of hardware it is not being configured by FOS Linux. Where as FOS Linux sees the external keyboard on the usb port and configures it. You mentioned other computers where the keyboard doesn’t work? Now is that 3440 the 2023 model or the 5-6 year old 3440 that is matched with the 7440 and 9440 laptops? If its the older series I have a 7440 that I can verify fos linux against.
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@george1421 Good morning, thank you for such detailed information. I checked the manufactured year and it is 2024.
We are a college and we bought a couple of these laptops, interestingly some of them had their internal keyboard work when fog asked you for a hostname, and some of the laptop’s internal keyboards do not work when fog asks you for a hostname. All the laptops are manufactured in 2024. For those that do not work we use an external keyboard. I hope this information is helpful.
The laptop is Dell Latitude 3440
Thank you
Regards
Abolaji -
@abolajioriola said in Keyboard on Dell 3440 does not work at registration prompt:
interestingly some of them had their internal keyboard work when fog asked you for a hostname, and some of the laptop’s internal keyboards do not work when fog asks you for a hostname
Ok just to be clear (i can read your statement a few different ways) On your Dell Latitude 3440s, you have some that the internal keyboard works, and some (of the same Dell model) that don’t work, but an external keyboard does?
If yes, lets compare the version of firmware (bios). IMO the same exact model should perform the same, either they all work, or they all won’t work. Not 50/50. So the question is what is the variable? Firmware version (bios) would be one, The second is that Dell used different hardware depending on when the device was made (rare but happens, a mid year engineering change).
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@george1421 Good morning, thanks for all your help on this so far. The firmware on the laptop that had this issue and the laptop that does not have this issue is the same. The BIOS version on both laptops is 1.8.0. We have several of these laptops that were just bought. I am checking as many as possible to see if I can see a different version of BIOS. It is really weird but that is the reality we are in right now.
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@george1421 Good morning, I am checking if there is any other idea on this issue that could help figure out what the issue is. thank you for all your support
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@abolajioriola Well this makes no sense at all. Same model and same firmware and same FOS linux kernel they should act the same.
If you have one laptop you know that works and one you know not work we can try to figure out the differences.
It will take some work on your side to get me the info I need. Its not hard but has a few steps.
First start with one or the other, for this discussion lets use the no working keyboard. Take that computer and schedule a deployment task to it, but before you hit the schedule task button, tick the debug checkbox. Now schedule the task (no worries we will not deploy anything at this time). Now pxe boot the computer, you should see several screens of text you need to clear with the enter key. Eventually you will be dropped to the fos linux command prompt.
This next part will make your debugging a bit easier. We will enable you to connect to the FOS Linux (target) computer over the network.
- Give root a password. Make it simple because it will be reset at next reboot. Use the following command from the FOS Linux (target) computer.
passwdgive it a simple password like hello. Since we are discussing the not working keyboard, you may need to use an external keyboard here. It will be interesting to know if you can type on the not working keyboard at this point. - Now get the ip address of the target computer with this command
ip a s - With that information ssh to the target computer using ssh or putty. Login as root and the password you just set it to.
Putty or ssh from a windowed environment will allow you to copy and paste commands to the target computer from these instructions.
From the ssh/putty shell to the target computer key in and copy out the following.
uname -a lspci -knnCopy those results out and post in this thread. Next use WinSCP/scp program to remote into the target computer and download the file
/var/log/syslogto your computer and rename it to not_working.txt Post the results in this thread.Now do the same with the other computer (working one) and post the results here. I will review the information and see if I can identify what is or isn’t working between the two.
Now finally you will need to go into the fog server and tasks and purge the two tasks related to these computers.
- Give root a password. Make it simple because it will be reset at next reboot. Use the following command from the FOS Linux (target) computer.
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@george1421 Thanks, I will do it and upload it here.
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@george1421 I just want to give you a quick update that we have not found any other Dell laptop with that issue. The ones we found turns out that a reboot just fix it. If I found any laptop with this issue, then I can get the requested information, thank you
