EDOS Linux Side Problem

My Raspberry Pi 4 powers up in RISCOS and from there one can fire up Linux. The mouse is hardly working and the Caps Lock key on the keyboard works only occasionally; but they both work just fine on RISCOS. Both mouse and keyboard are wireless. A wired mouse and wired keyboard work with Linux.

I have an SD card BackUp which includes a directory of Loader files. I notice that the CMOS file in this directory has an earlier date than the CMOS file in !Boot.Loader, the latter having today’s date at a time when I first noticed the problem.

So is it safe to simply copy the earlier backup CMOS file into !Boot.Loader and could it solve the mouse and keyboard problem?

Further, all the other files in !Boot.Loader have dates in 2021.

Given that the mouse and keyboard only misbehave when using Linux, I think the problem may be related to the Linux build/configuration rather than RISC OS.

FWIW, I have thought of a couple of hardware issues.

Item 1: Some mice (e.g. the Logitech MX Anywhere 3) will work with either Bluetooth or an old-style wireless dongle. You should of course know if your mouse and/or keyboard are Bluetooth-capable.

• RISC OS doesn’t support Bluetooth so can only work via the wireless dongle.
• Linux supports Bluetooth, so you can pair the mouse to the Pi 4. However the wireless dongle will still be plugged in (you need it in for RISC OS use) – this uncertainty over which connection mechanism to use could possibly lead to the problems you are seeing.

The quick test is to switch off Bluetooth from Linux. If you still have trouble with the mouse then Bluetooth probably isn’t the reason.

Item 2: It could be that Linux is upset at not seeing the keyboard and mouse “from cold”. To see if this is the case, boot into Linux, unplug the wireless dongle, wait a few seconds then reconnect it. Somebody with more Linux-fu than me might be able to suggest a way of doing this from the Linux command line.

So is it safe to simply copy the earlier backup CMOS file into !Boot.Loader

You are unlikely to break anything major, as the CMOS file is intended to be used on your machine. There may be some trivial settings (e.g. caps lock) to reapply, of course.

could it solve the mouse and keyboard problem?

To be honest, I consider it extremely unlikely.

I should make clear that the keyboard and mouse have worked fine from buying the machine many months ago. I have an idea what caused the problem.

I did try to get into hardware settings on the Linux side using the wired mouse and wired keyboard, but got a message to the effect that I couldn’t change them because the machine had a non-standard set up.

I’ll try some of your tests, but I am not optimistic that this will tell me anything as I haven’t tried to change anything on the Linux side, and it has worked fine up to today.

What else have you got plugged into the Pi? Which port is the USB dongle for the keyboard/mouse plugged into? Have you moved the machine?

Reason I ask is I had a similar issue with a FOURtress with a standard Linux SD card. It usually manifested itself when two keyboards were in close proximity. One was interfering with the other. Very annoying when typing at the terminal.

Might not be the case with your situation, but when I was researching the issue I discovered that it is a known problem. See here

Might be worth trying some of those solutions (especially using a USB 2 port instead of a USB 3 one) and seeing if one makes a difference.

My CMOS suggestion was daft, because that is for the RISC OS side, and everything was working for RISC OS.

@Stuart
The Keyboard is a Logitech MK270 and doesn’t communicate via Bluetooth and neither does the mouse – nothing on the box mentioning Bluetooth. I tried your item 2 test, but this made no difference.

I had had the wireless dongle in one of the two USB3 sockets with Linux in the other one, and RISC OS worked wirelessly with keyboard and mouse, but not Linux. I tried sticking the dongle in one of the two USB2 sockets, and, bingo, both keyboard and mouse work! (This answers the second of RISCOSBits questions.) I don’t know whether the dongle was in a USB2 or USB3 on previous sessions of use. (The computer is used in more than one place, but the keyboard, mouse and dongle stay in one place. This also answers RISCOSBits third question.)

@RISCOSBits
So to RISCOSBits first question. Throughout the testing, I had nothing else plugged in besides the monitor, the Linux stick, obviously, power supply and network cable. However, just prior to the problem, I had a USB stick stuck in a USB hub mounted on RISC OS. I didn’t dismount it, as may have been wise, prior to booting into Linux. Could this have caused the problem?

I don’t think so, no. I think you’ve probably cracked it with moving it to the USB 2 port. I was checking more that you didn’t have something like a mechanical drive or two plugged in there that was draining power (although I’d still have expected the drive(s) to stop working before use keyboard/mouse in most circumstances.

Thanks for replies. I don’t know whether I have ever had the dongle in a USB3 socket prior to this problem. Maybe I have, previously, always stuck it in a USB2 socket.

Perhaps others could try what I did and report back?