Keyboard unresponsive at boot menu (Petitboot)

[AlbertoGP]

Is this a known issue?
My BB works fine otherwise, but at the boot menu the only key that seems to do anything is CTRL+ALT+DEL, so at least I can reboot.
Any other key interrupts the automatic boot, but otherwise does nothing.

I have tried different keyboards, also plugged directly instead of through a USB HUB.

I remember this working a couple of weeks ago as I was setting it up.
Is this affected by the on-board VGA disable jumper? That’s the only change I’ve made to the motherboard since then. I haven’t updated or modified the firmware (boot/BMC flash), just installed Linux in a SATA drive, which works perfectly fine and I’m using now to write this message.

[nglevin]

How are you observing Petitboot, if not through the HDMI output that you have disabled by setting the VGA disable jumper?

Are you observing Petitboot through the serial console?

[xilinder]

@AlbertoGP

I have a Talos II. If the VGA/HDMI disable jumper is OFF then the Petitboot screen and keyboard work as expected, and selection of what I want to do is straight forward. If the disable jumper is ON then although the keyboard IS working it does not show on the display.

To select one of 3 OS's I need to count how many times it is necessary to tap the up cursor key to select the OS I want and then hit Enter. Blank spaces are counted as one tap on the up cursor.

So for my setup it's 9 taps for Ubuntu, 15 taps for Fedora, and 18 taps for Debian, then Enter.

Give it a try.

[AlbertoGP]

Thanks both, yes that’s exactly what’s happening. If I turn the jumper on the menu works as expected.

[xilinder]

Yes, it is a PITA. I do suggest that you simply put up with it until a solution is found that does not involve modifying or adding code to the firmware. Doing that could become a headache in the future.

On my setup I rigged a small toggle switch to the disable pins and mounted it to the front panel. Switch-up, jumper-on. Switch-down, jumper-off.

[cchinicz]

Hi,

I'm new to Talos. I've just bought a Blackbird and still did not receive it.

If I understood it correctly, I will not see on HDMI the boot sequence until the Debian pre installed starts to print messages.

Is that correct? Will I have to open to cabinet when I get the product and switch any strap?

Thanks in advance,
Claudio

[ClassicHasClass]

The difference is whether you have a GPU installed or not. If you don't, then everything appears on the on-board HDMI 2D framebuffer, which is driven by the BMC, including Hostboot and the Petitboot menu. My Blackbird is set up that way.

If you have a GPU installed and you jumpered it so that the GPU is used, then you may need to put the GPU's firmware into PNOR so that Petitboot will work with it (note that you will not see the earliest Hostboot sequence and nothing will appear until you get to Petitboot). If you don't do this, the system will run, but you won't see anything until the main OS starts. See https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Add_GPU_Firmware_To_BOOTKERNFW

[MPC7500]

I have both GPUs connected to the display.
AST for Hostboot/ Petitboot
Radeon for the OS

Select desired GPU at runtime

[cchinicz]

Thank you both for the feed-back. I've ordered the Blackbird without GPU so I understand from your replies that I'll be able to see the whole boot process on the HDMI.

[ClassicHasClass]

Yes, it should "just work."