I purchased a nice ByTech backlite USB keyboard for my X5000. During the Splash screen, the keyboard lights up and then goes out. When it boots up in the Uboot screen, I get a bunch of errors and then finally boots. When it first boots, the keyboard works as a keyboard but to turn on the backlights, you have to hit "Scroll LOCK" but nothing happens.
I rebooted and the keyboard backlite turns on but the keyboard does not function. I get the USB popup that it recognizes it as a USB keyboard. If I unplug and plug the usb, again I get the USB popup, the backlite is on but it will not function.
I looked in Prefs but didn't find anything in USB or Inputs on backlit. I plugged it into my Win 10 laptop and works fine.
Someone wrote that the USB stack of OS4 is very strict. So also with the power consumption of the connected devices itself on strictly adheres to the specification. If the device draws too much current the stack probably switches it off. for safety's sake. Hope my statements are correct so far, I have heard that once to have. And no idea if that might be the case here. Maybe wotrh a try with a powered HUB.
@amiganuts It took a while to get to here - it seems my own account access is lost and can't be password reset, so I had to create a new account to be able to post.
First things first: Control of backlights and other on-keyboard effect-lights is not standardized, and is thus not integrated into the USB input drivers (bootmouse, bootkeyboard and HID). So you should not expect any handling of that from the OS side.
That aside, it seems from your description that the keyboard is not working at all under OS4 - i.e. you can't type anything with it in AmigaOS4. Is that a correct understanding of your description (I'm a bit confused of whether you talk about UBoot or AmigaOS with regards to typing not working)?
From a cold boot, the keyboard backlite blinked on and off during the x5000 splash screen. When it got to the OS selection screen, it scrolled a list of the same error and then finally booted into OS4. At that time, I could type in notepad. I did a reset and when it got to the OS selection screen, I got the same scrolling error, booted to OS4, backlit on but would not respond to any typing in notepad.
I tried to connect through a powered USB hub. It booted and I got no error on the OS select but the keyboard didn't work either. It booted to OS4 but no backlite and unable to type in notepad.
For what it is worth, I tried it on my Ubuntu Server. The keyboard worked but the backlite did not. When Ubuntu booted, the backlite blinked on and off and then booted. When I hit scroll lock to turn on the backlite, it did not work.
Lets try this another way. Has anyone successfully added a backlit keyboard to their X5000? If so, what brand and model? I can just return this one I bought and get a compatible one. I was thinking of trying a Logitech or Apple. According to the compatibility list, these USBs work but it does not mention backlit.
amiganuts wrote:Lets try this another way. Has anyone successfully added a backlit keyboard to their X5000? If so, what brand and model? I can just return this one I bought and get a compatible one. I was thinking of trying a Logitech or Apple. According to the compatibility list, these USBs work but it does not mention backlit.
I have used a backlit Ducky One with my X5000 several years. It works ok, but I had to change one of the dip switches as the default setting caused problems with U-Boot.
I might be wrong, but AFAIK the USB HID standard doesn't include something like keyboard backlit. Probably requires non-standard drivers, only available for Windows, and in some cases maybe MacOS as well, but noting else. Of course no hardware manufacturer will even mention compatibility with AmigaOS, but some will at least specify if it works on Linux or not. If hardware doesn't even support Linux/BSD/etc. you can be quite sure it doesn't work on AmigaOS either.
@amiganuts Sounds strange that the keyboard is not working on, seemingly, warm reboots.
Can I get you to send me your T:usb.log file of the two boot scenarios? I.e. one log file with a booting where the keyboard works and one where it does not work. Just as an initial investigation of what might be going on. Send it to (minus garbage strings and spaces, and replacing the "at" and "dot") graff (lots of garbage here) at amigausb dot dk.
Also, please send along with it the version number you have installed of: - usbsys.device - hub.usbfd - bootkeyboard.usbfd - hid.usbfd
I'm curious And it may give me some hints towards fixing support for the keyboard. Anyway, if you're going to return the keyboard, then there's no need to dig deeper - it would probably take longer to get it supported (the keyboard, not the backlight control) than the period during which you would have to return the keyboard.
You could be right. I have an Apple keyboard hooked up to my X1000. I practically have to keep an extension on my knee because it keeps going dead a few times an hour usually. It might not help that I like to keep my mouse plugged into it. The strange thing is the mouse can still work but the keyboard can go dead so it's confusing. I've checked the log and there isn't always a disconnect before it goes dead so it's hard to tell why it went missing. But I must pull the plug and push it back in to get both back.
Not sure, possible it may go to sleep. I see no reason to because I take my focus away from the keyboard to the mouse for just a few moments. I do see a few 0x70000000 unknown code errors.
It also has a hub so there is always a hub connected with the keyboard. Possible this could drain too much power. The X1000 ports may not be providing enough power and not up to the job of an iMac built ten years before it when computers were more powerful.
I also tested it without mouse plugged in and it still goes dead. I really should replace I suppose since OS4 cannot handle it. But I don't know of any other keyboards where the logo keys are in the right spot.
No, classic Amiga keyboards have "Alt Logo Space Logo Alt".
But there is an option to exchange the Logo (Amiga) and Alt keys in AmigaOS 4.x somewhere (maybe only with an ENV variable), and maybe keyboard stickers are still available if you don't mind that. Fixing keyboards with stickers isn't even something new in Amiga world, even my fist Amiga (later called "A1000", at the release it was just "Amiga"), included a wrong keyboard, IIRC it had a french/belgian layout, and included stickers with the german keys to fix it
For an Amiga layout keyboard you can use any PC layout keyboard, but make sure it still has 2 Windows keys, some only have the left Windows key and right to space only the Menu key but no Windows key any more, and such stickers, put the Amiga stickers on the Alt keys and the Alt stickers on the Windows keys, and enable "Swap Alt/Amiga keys" in Input prefs.