> When inserting the first letter of the password, the whole kdm input box is
> filled with the black point, which hides the password. After that no further
> keyboard input is possible. The mouse continues to work fine, it modifies the
> focus etc.
> When I switch to the console with CTRL-ALT-F1 and switch back to X11 with
> ALT-F7 the keyboard works fully again. (I still have to click on "login" to
> "cancel" the filled-up password entry box with a failed login. After that the
> keyboard works perfectly fine.

Please, does this also happen on console? I.e. when you have default boot to runlevel 3 (text mode), and try to log into console?

If it does work flawlessly, I'd be a bit suspicious with respect to X server.

> I suspect this is a kernel bug, as the keyboard also doesn't work during the
> selection of boot kernels (which fortunately selects the standard kernel).

This is not related. When the GRUB menu is in action, there is no way kernel could handle the keyboard. It is handled by the machine BIOS.

If you want USB keyboard to be working in GRUB menu, please check "USB Legacy Support" option in your BIOS.

> The machine uses a straight-forward Logitech USB keyboard. I'm attaching dmesg
> output. These login problems were not present on OpenSuSE 10.2

Thanks, there is nothing suspicious in the dmesg output. It would be nice if you could use evtest program to grab what is actually coming from the input device of the keyboard when it gets stuck. In that way we will be able to see clearly if it is a kernel bug or X/KDE bug.

Thanks.

(In reply to comment #1 from Jiri Kosina)
> > When inserting the first letter of the password, the whole kdm input box is
> > filled with the black point, which hides the password. After that no further
> > keyboard input is possible. The mouse continues to work fine, it modifies the
> > focus etc.
> > When I switch to the console with CTRL-ALT-F1 and switch back to X11 with
> > ALT-F7 the keyboard works fully again. (I still have to click on "login" to
> > "cancel" the filled-up password entry box with a failed login. After that the
> > keyboard works perfectly fine.
> 
> Please, does this also happen on console? I.e. when you have default boot to
> runlevel 3 (text mode), and try to log into console?

If I boot directly into run level 3, I can login just fine, no doubled key presses or something similar.
 
> If it does work flawlessly, I'd be a bit suspicious with respect to X server.
> 
> > I suspect this is a kernel bug, as the keyboard also doesn't work during the
> > selection of boot kernels (which fortunately selects the standard kernel).
> 
> This is not related. When the GRUB menu is in action, there is no way kernel
> could handle the keyboard. It is handled by the machine BIOS.
> 
> If you want USB keyboard to be working in GRUB menu, please check "USB Legacy
> Support" option in your BIOS.

Indeed, "USB keyboard support" was disabled in the BIOS. With it enabled GRUB works as expected. The KDM behaviour is the same, though.

> > The machine uses a straight-forward Logitech USB keyboard. I'm attaching dmesg
> > output. These login problems were not present on OpenSuSE 10.2
> 
> Thanks, there is nothing suspicious in the dmesg output. It would be nice if
> you could use evtest program to grab what is actually coming from the input
> device of the keyboard when it gets stuck. In that way we will be able to see
> clearly if it is a kernel bug or X/KDE bug.

I'm attaching an event log. This is a for a dummy user with the passwort 12345.  
I've typed only "1" initially. As soon as the "1" is pressed, the entry field fills up with the black points (although only one keyboard event is logged. 
Then I typed 2 and 3 and a couple of backspaces, but it didn't change anything.

Created attachment 181945 [details]
Eventlog for typing 1 2 3 BS BS BS BS ...

Moritz, thanks a lot for your feedback.

The data passed from kernel seem to be correct, so I'd say this is either X or KDM problem. I have added some relevant people to CC, let's see.

Thanks.

What's the output of "cat /etc/sysconfig/keyboard | grep KBD_TTY" and "fbset -s"?

I have the same problem. The output of "cat /etc/sysconfig/keyboard | grep KBD_TTY" is:

KBD_TTY="tty1 tty2 tty3 tty4 tty5 tty6 tty7 tty8 tty9 tty10 tty12 tty13 tty14 tty15 tty16 tty17 tty18 tty19 tty20"

and the output of "fbset -s" is:

mode "1280x1024-77"
    # D: 131.096 MHz, H: 80.328 kHz, V: 76.649 Hz
    geometry 1280 1024 1280 1024 16
    timings 7628 160 32 16 4 160 4
    rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

Note that on my end, sometimes the output of the keyboard gets distorted exactly as described by the reporter, other times it will just not print anything in the password box. Switching between ctrl+alt+F1 and ctrl+alt+F7 always fixes the problem. Logging in outside kdm is also never a problem (console login).

This problem is new to me since I upgraded from 10.2 to 10.3.

Philipp, could you replace your KBD_TTY line in /etc/sysconfig/keyboard with the following?

KBD_TTY="tty1 tty2 tty3 tty4 tty5 tty6"

Can you still reprocuce the issue afterwards?

Stefan,

Changing the KBD_TTY fixed the problem.

Thank you for your help.

I had the same problem after updating from openSUSE 10.2 to 10.3. Changing the KBD_TTY line solved it for me, too.

All: if you only remove tty7 from KBD_TTY (and leave tty8 etc. there), does it also fix the problem? I'll probably do this change in kbd %post as a workaround for machines updated over and over. BTW KBD_TTY was changed back in 2004.

Sorry, I can't provide further test feedback. This system has been migrated to Debian.

(In reply to comment #10)
I'm sorry, I can't further test this as my system has been migrated to Ubuntu meanwhile.

Closing as noresponse.