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Neuronaut

7 Posts

106425

August 24th, 2005 11:00

Ghost w/ no keyboard or mouse

Trying to use ghost with a GX520, but since it's USB, neither the keyboard nor mouse want to work. I've tried using a 3rd party USB keyboard driver (keyb.exe), but that doesn't appear to work.

What is Dell's response to this problem, since they decided to make this PC without any PS/2 ports??

Neuronaut

7 Posts

August 24th, 2005 14:00

Fixed -- had to copy OHCI.EXE to Ghost boot CD image and modify CONFIG.SYS on Ghost boot CD:


DEVICE=OHCI.EXE

Message Edited by Neuronaut on 08-24-2005 10:30 AM

Neuronaut

7 Posts

August 26th, 2005 15:00

Looks like I spoke too soon. I am finding it IMPOSSIBLE to get Ghost to recognize my mouse and keyboard, AND allow me to use an external USB hard drive.

Our company is seriously considering going with another supplier because of the whole USB issue...

BenBennell

2 Posts

September 5th, 2005 23:00

I've been able to get USB keyboard and mouse working in the dos version of ghost for quite a while, but it was nothing to do with what I did!  I use a modified boot disk based on the files available at
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/modboot/  MODBOOT - Bart's Modular Boot Disk
 
I've used it successfully for a while with HP, Toshiba laptops and now successfully with Dell desktops too.
 

Neuronaut

7 Posts

September 7th, 2005 11:00

But were you able to get an external USB hard drive to work at the same time?

The problem appears to be this: Dell's BIOS does not handle assigning USB devices correctly.

There are three USB controller types:

EHCI - USB 2.0 support
OHCI - USB 1.1 support
UHCI < USB 1.1

Apparently the GX520 wants to assign the keyboard/mouse to the EHCI (high-speed) USB controller. This means that it can't assign the external hard drive to EHCI, and as a result it either is assigned to OHCI (USB 1.1 speed) or (as is more often the case) the device is not recognized at all.

Dell seriously needs to fix this.

rx4nets

1 Message

September 13th, 2005 23:00

I don't think I have a silver bullet, and I suppose there could be some device dependency here with my external HD, but I think I lucked into a combination that works:

1) DOS Boot (from CD) with no USB drivers of any kind.

2) USB Controller set to "ON" in BIOS (Default).

This was turned to No Boot at some point (Dell Support) to cure a KB hang.

3) Looking at the connections on back:
USB1 NET
USB2 NET
USB3 USB5
USB4 USB6

4) Here is how things are connected:

Ethernet connected to NET
USB1 connects to the External HD
USB5 connects to Keyboard
USB6 connects to Mouse
5) Run Ghost 8.2 as usual. 
 
In retrospcet and in talking to other propeller-heads, the deal seems to be that you have to plug the KB and Mouse inthe the USB ports immediately beneath the LAN port.  I'm not sure if this is truly required or not, but I would think that USB and BIOSes should be to the point  where there wouldn't be any requirements as such.

schiller_f2c39d

6 Posts

September 23rd, 2005 08:00

BIOS has supported USB input devices (keyboard and mice) for some time.

Since i have been using USB keyboards (for some time) i have never had to install additional drivers from a boot disk to make a keyboard work. You should be able to enter BIOS setup from a USB keyboard, if you cannot make sure the keyboard is ok.

The only exception i can think of is with bluetooth keyboards and mice.

I have not read the whole thread, i am just referring to your problem with the keyboard.

USB disk drives do require additional drivers. I suggest you look into a program call DUSE for this.

kevrsanders

5 Posts

October 4th, 2005 14:00

Check to see what your BIOS revision is. I have a batch of 60 PC's half will image using usb and half will not image I have found that some have A01 and others have A03 and this have been causing my problems.

Neuronaut

7 Posts

October 5th, 2005 10:00

Interesting... I'd checked before for BIOS updates, but there weren't any. This one's just out (09/20/05). I'll give it a try.

tlbarton

9 Posts

October 5th, 2005 17:00

I too have found that this problem seems to be dependent upon the BIOS version.  I have a number of GX520s with BIOS revision A01 that will image just fine with USB keyboard and mouse to an external USB drive, but my new GX620 with BIOS revision A03 won't work.

I did find a solution, although not a perfect one for the GX620 with BIOS revision A03 using Norton Ghost 2003.  I created a new boot disk using MS-DOS with USB 2.0 support and the following Ghost switches:

-ws- -wd- -ntc- -fni -ffx

I also took earlier advise and placed my USB External Drive is USB1, keyboard in USB5 and mouse in USB6.  This allows everything to work with one small exception.  Some of the keys on my keyboard don't work or generate garbage characters (conveniently enough, including the Enter keys).  I found if I create any required directories on my USB Drive before hand, I can use my mouse and standard alphanumeric and numeric keys on my keyboard and successfully create the image.

If anyone else manages to figure out a better solution, I'd greatly appreciate it if they would post.

Cheers!

Message Edited by tlbarton on 10-05-2005 01:56 PM

kevrsanders

5 Posts

October 5th, 2005 19:00

*********Please ignore this message as this fix will no longer work with the New P4 Dual Core Chips. If you need to use ghost with a GX520 please see the last paragraph of my post on page 3********

I have been in touch with dell UK and they have given me a url link to the old A01 bios which works with our usb HDD's and allows us image the machines using ghost. I have the link on my PC at work so if anone requires I can post it on here. The best way I have found to do this is to create a boot floppy with the A01 bios flash on it then re flash the bios from A03 down to A01 then image. If you want you can then flash it back up to A03 but i am just going to leave it with A01 why not it still works.

 

Hope this helps guys

 

Kev



Thanks

Message Edited by kevrsanders on 05-24-200603:14 AM

Message Edited by kevrsanders on 05-24-200603:18 AM

tlbarton

9 Posts

October 6th, 2005 12:00

Hi again everyone,
 
Well, my problem definitely appears to be related to the bios revision A03.  I received a response yesterday to my posting and it was suggested that I try flashing by bios back to revision A01.  Since I had found a workaround and was able to take an image to my external USB HD already, I decided to try it.  Low and behold, it worked just as the GX520s with bios revision A01 did without a problem.
 
If you'd like to give it a try yourself, you can get a copy of the bios revision A01 at the following link, along with instructions on flashing the bios.
 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>

Cheers!
 
 
**** UPDATE TO THIS MESSAGE **** Please note that I have encountered problems with GX520s built since 02/28/2006.  They now have a new processor which will NOT work with bios revision A01 and in fact will create a processor incompatibility.  Please do not try this without consulting DELL first.

Message Edited by tlbarton on 05-23-200601:30 PM

zorex

1 Message

October 18th, 2005 20:00

Another way I solved this issue was to use a USB floppy drive and boot on a Ghost floppy diskette. Once Ghost is loaded, your USB keyboard and mouse will start working.

Neuronaut

7 Posts

October 27th, 2005 16:00

Perhaps, but were they working WITH a USB hard drive running at USB 2.0 speed?

MikeBMCWEST

4 Posts

October 27th, 2005 17:00

I'm having the same problem I've got Version 8.2 of Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition. If I make PEER to PEER disks I can boot up and get the keyboard to work just fine the mouse still won't work but thats ok. But I really need to be able to use Network.
 
I have a GX520 and GX620 and get the same problem on both. The Keyboard and Mouse seem to work for the first 15 sec that ghost is loading and then once the space screen asking to click OK comes up both the keyboard and mouse stop working.
 
Is this a Ghost problem or a Dell problem? Has anyone called Symantec on this?

MikeBMCWEST

4 Posts

October 27th, 2005 17:00

I've also tried the External USB Floppy and this did nothing.

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