Arrow Keys not working in GRUB

Boot into Ubuntu, find the GRUB settings, and change the order from 0 to 2.

Now next time you power on your system, it'll directly boot into Windows. In this way you can save yourself from this situation.

I have had the same problem with a clean install of Ubuntu 20.04 and Windows 10.

I found that grub would not respond to my keyboard when connected to a USB3 port, but works fine with legacy USB2.

1. Before Grub loads, (on my machine at least) when given the option to enter BIOS or select boot volume, I hit a key to go to one of those and then hit escape.
2. When it dumps me out at grub I now can move the arrows up and down. Whereas if I just let it load to Grub, keyboard does not work.

I encoutered a similar problem with an USB keyboard. Indeed, I couldn't navigate through my BIOS. I had to finded an old PS/2 keyboard. Fortunately my motherboard have a PS/2 connector and I manually configured the USB support in the bios.

After that I never faced this problem anymore.

To return to your problem, can you navigate through your bios ? The problem is only concerning grub ? Your keyboard have some lighting indicator during your boot ?

If you can't navigate in your bios, please try this solutions :

• Change the USB port of your keyboard to another one
• Try another keyboard
• Use a PS/2 keyboard (if possible) and then enable the USB support in your bios.

I installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS alongside Windows 10. Like you, after restarting the keyboard didn't work at all in GRUB, but worked in Ubuntu after it booted automatically.

I had plugged my keyboard in a USB3 socket. By plugging it into an ordinary USB, it worked in grub too.

I had the same exact problem with the grub menu and found a fix that worked for me. I tried looking into BIOS, and I tried 'Page Up/Page Down' keys- both with no success.. Finally I plugged in a different USB keyboard and the Up/Down keys were working normally with the menu.

The keyboard that didn't work was older, and the one that was working was newer.. Not really sure why one would work and the other wouldn't though.

Hopefully this helps!

I had this problem too but it turns out that special characters such as '@' as in P@ssword was not being generated. At the prompt pressing RIGHT SHIFT and key 2 does not generate a '@' instead a '2' is generated. This can be confirmed by switching over to another TTY and typing in the password (CTRL + ALT + F1) which will echo the key press. In this TTY, I noted that using LEFT SHIFT and key 2 generated the '@' control character. Thus if LEFT SHIFT is used in complex password it will be typed correctly and cryptsetup will be able to decrypt the volume. It is very frustrating when grub can not accept complex password characters used on encrypted volumes during recovery booting.

I had exactly this problem and I thought I would never get back into Windows. Thankfully the page down key does work, so problem solved.

Mine is a USB keyboard by the way and I am sure this is nothing to do with dust in the USB plug or sockets. It was the same with all 5 USB ports on the computer. And, like the poster of this problem the keys worked fine once Ubuntu had booted.

Does your BIOS/UEFI setup have a setting for "legacy USB support" or "USB keyboard support"? If so, enabling this might allow your keyboard to work during boot.

These USB support options allow USB based keyboards to function as if they are traditional DIN or PS/2 keyboards like in the days before USB. This will only affect the time up until your operating system loads its own keyboard drivers, so it can allow USB keyboards to work during boot even for boot loaders without USB support.

I'm not sure if Grub should support USB keyboards without the legacy option. But in this case it's worth a try.