Microsoft wireless keyboard - trackpad (mouse) use freezes the machine!

Hi,

My Pi/server made it to 42 days., 21 hours, and 23 minutes.

Then I plugged in a Microsoft All-In-One Media keyboard – one of these. I got it in the sale and was interested in it because it uses a tiny USB dongle and advertises itself as an HID, so isn’t anything unfriendly to RISC OS, like Bluetooth. I’d need to look at tweaking one of the media keys to replace the missing Menu button, but it isn’t a big thing, I did something sort of similar for the Bush Box many years ago.

Would be nice, you know, if it actually worked.

Using both my homebrew ROM (about a year old) and yesterday’s Pi ROM, the results are the same.

Touchpad motion – pointer works. Pointer moves, but this may well freeze the machine. To mock you thoroughly, the pointer will continue moving post-freeze. See below.

Touchpad tap – does the action expected of a Select click. Then the machine freezes. Mouse pointer keeps working, but CallBacks don’t. Unless there has been keyboard activity, it seems, in which case simply moving the mouse will result in the machine freezing.

Keyboard – spamming the ESC key at boot interrupts the boot sequence. As far as I can determine, that is the ONLY key that works. Oh, okay, I am writing this on the keyboard now. It seems to work when the other keyboard is connected? That’s weird, let me reboot to see…

Okay, the keyboard part does work. I just cqnnot touch the ;ouse. Oh, crap, sorry, it is an AZERTY layout keyboard. If I can get it working, I’ll need to get some key stickers or something.

Right. One more reboot. Simply moving the mouse pointer with the keyboard in use froze the machine (pointer would move, nothing responsive).

I wonder if the mouse or HID part sends too much data or something? I don’t know. I just think it is…unusual…that a mouse can bring the machine down.

[that said, my graphics tablet sends extra information (pen pressure) and this doesn’t cause any problems…?]

Can anybody help get this working, please?

Here is the HID descriptor:

FS=USB4 Bus=1 Address=4 Interface=1

045e  [Microsoft]
0800  [Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0]

HID Report Descriptor, HEX dump (223 bytes):

05 01 09 02 a1 01 05 01 09 02 a1 02 85 1a 09 01 
a1 00 05 09 19 01 29 05 95 05 75 01 15 00 25 01 
81 02 75 03 95 01 81 01 05 01 09 30 09 31 95 02 
75 10 16 01 80 26 ff 7f 81 06 a1 02 85 12 09 48 
95 01 75 02 15 00 25 01 35 01 45 10 b1 02 85 1a 
09 38 35 00 45 00 95 01 75 10 16 01 80 26 ff 7f 
81 06 c0 a1 02 85 12 09 48 75 02 15 00 25 01 35 
01 45 10 b1 02 35 00 45 00 75 04 b1 01 85 1a 05 
0c 95 01 75 10 16 01 80 26 ff 7f 0a 38 02 81 06 
c0 c0 c0 c0 05 0c 09 01 a1 01 05 01 09 02 a1 02 
85 1f 05 0c 0a 38 02 95 01 75 10 16 01 80 26 ff 
7f 81 06 85 17 06 00 ff 0a 06 ff 0a 0f ff 15 00 
25 01 35 01 45 10 95 02 75 02 b1 02 0a 04 ff 35 
00 45 00 95 01 75 01 b1 02 75 03 b1 01 c0 c0 

HID Report Descriptor (parsed)

04  ......01  Usage Page (Generic Desktop Controls)
08  ......02  Usage (Mouse)
a0  ......01  Collection (Application)
04  ......01     Usage Page (Generic Desktop Controls)
08  ......02     Usage (Mouse)
a0  ......02     Collection (Logical)
84  ......1a        Report ID (26)
08  ......01        Usage (Pointer)
a0  ......00        Collection (Physical)
04  ......09           Usage Page (Buttons)
18  ......01           Usage Minimum (1)
28  ......05           Usage Maximum (5)
94  ......05           Report Count (5)
74  ......01           Report Size (1)
14  ......00           Logical Minimum (0)
24  ......01           Logical Maximum (1)
80  ......02           Input (Data, Variable, Absolute)
74  ......03           Report Size (3)
94  ......01           Report Count (1)
80  ......01           Input (Constant, Array, Absolute)
04  ......01           Usage Page (Generic Desktop Controls)
08  ......30           Usage (Direction-X)
08  ......31           Usage (Direction-Y)
94  ......02           Report Count (2)
74  ......10           Report Size (16)
14  ....8001           Logical Minimum (32769)
24  ....7fff           Logical Maximum (32767)
80  ......06           Input (Data, Variable, Relative)
a0  ......02           Collection (Logical)
84  ......12              Report ID (18)
08  ......48              Usage ()
94  ......01              Report Count (1)
74  ......02              Report Size (2)
14  ......00              Logical Minimum (0)
24  ......01              Logical Maximum (1)
34  ......01              Physical Minimum (1)
44  ......10              Physical Maximum (16)
b0  ......02              Feature (Data, Variable, Absolute)
84  ......1a              Report ID (26)
08  ......38              Usage (Wheel)
34  ......00              Physical Minimum (0)
44  ......00              Physical Maximum (0)
94  ......01              Report Count (1)
74  ......10              Report Size (16)
14  ....8001              Logical Minimum (32769)
24  ....7fff              Logical Maximum (32767)
80  ......06              Input (Data, Variable, Relative)
c0  ........           End Collection
a0  ......02           Collection (Logical)
84  ......12              Report ID (18)
08  ......48              Usage ()
74  ......02              Report Size (2)
14  ......00              Logical Minimum (0)
24  ......01              Logical Maximum (1)
34  ......01              Physical Minimum (1)
44  ......10              Physical Maximum (16)
b0  ......02              Feature (Data, Variable, Absolute)
34  ......00              Physical Minimum (0)
44  ......00              Physical Maximum (0)
74  ......04              Report Size (4)
b0  ......01              Feature (Constant, Array, Absolute)
84  ......1a              Report ID (26)
04  ......0c              Usage Page (Consumer)
94  ......01              Report Count (1)
74  ......10              Report Size (16)
14  ....8001              Logical Minimum (32769)
24  ....7fff              Logical Maximum (32767)
08  ....0238              Usage (AC Pan)
80  ......06              Input (Data, Variable, Relative)
c0  ........           End Collection
c0  ........        End Collection
c0  ........     End Collection
c0  ........  End Collection
04  ......0c  Usage Page (Consumer)
08  ......01  Usage (Consumer Control)
a0  ......01  Collection (Application)
04  ......01     Usage Page (Generic Desktop Controls)
08  ......02     Usage (Mouse)
a0  ......02     Collection (Logical)
84  ......1f        Report ID (31)
04  ......0c        Usage Page (Consumer)
08  ....0238        Usage (AC Pan)
94  ......01        Report Count (1)
74  ......10        Report Size (16)
14  ....8001        Logical Minimum (32769)
24  ....7fff        Logical Maximum (32767)
80  ......06        Input (Data, Variable, Relative)
84  ......17        Report ID (23)
04  ....ff00        Usage Page (Undefined)
08  ....ff06        Usage ()
08  ....ff0f        Usage ()
14  ......00        Logical Minimum (0)
24  ......01        Logical Maximum (1)
34  ......01        Physical Minimum (1)
44  ......10        Physical Maximum (16)
94  ......02        Report Count (2)
74  ......02        Report Size (2)
b0  ......02        Feature (Data, Variable, Absolute)
08  ....ff04        Usage ()
34  ......00        Physical Minimum (0)
44  ......00        Physical Maximum (0)
94  ......01        Report Count (1)
74  ......01        Report Size (1)
b0  ......02        Feature (Data, Variable, Absolute)
74  ......03        Report Size (3)
b0  ......01        Feature (Constant, Array, Absolute)
c0  ........     End Collection
c0  ........  End Collection

This wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve seen Microsoft hardware do weird things. With an earlier Pi ROM, my “Basic Optical Mouse v2.0” would result in a “FileCore in use” error as soon as I touched it! Fortunately newer ROMs such as RC14 don’t have that issue, but it was still bizarre. Presumably your device is doing something similarly unexpected.

In a way, I’m glad to see that it’s still not working with a year-old ROM; that means that my “touchscreen” code submission didn’t break it :)

Just tested, mouse and cursors work on an older RaspBMC. Didn’t test other keys.

Works with Windows, and most of the media keys work too, which is nice given it is designed for Win8+ and I’m using XP… ;-)

that means that my “touchscreen” code submission didn’t break it :)

Whoa… so cynical! :)

Just tested, mouse and cursors work on an older RaspBMC.

Just a thought but if the windows/linux setup includes an option to set keyboard / mouse repeat rate¹ then change to a longer time interval and see what it does.

Related to the thought, the best way of stopping the VNC server from crashing is to alter repeat rates downward. My speculation was that it was a buffer filling issue.

¹ Old fart IT tech experience mode: back in the mid-90’s we had problems with machines that were too fast for Win3.11 and ended up with a new (beta) keyboard / mouse driver from Microsoft via Apricot. Buffer over-fill issue.

Whoa… so cynical! :)

There is a method to my madness :)

The touchscreen code queries the screen to get its bounds. It’s possible that a trackpad could return bound data and “trick” the system into thinking that it’s a touchscreen, which would likely result in oddities. It shouldn’t freeze, but you never know!