GRUB not responding to keyboard

In my case (Dell XPS 15 9550 with latest BIOS/UEFI 1.14.0) was because I added a USB-C dongle between the keyboard and the laptop.

I would like to second what Pablo Bianchi said. Even though USB Legacy boot =>[ENABLE] it had the problem with grub menu. changing it to USB Legacy boot =>[AUTO] solved the issue.

I realise this is quite an old post, but 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.

If "fast boot" is causing the problem but you don't want to turn it off, change "USB Support" from "Partial Initial" to "Full Initial" in the BIOS if there is such an option (at least at my GIGABYTE BIOS). This activates all USB devices before OS boot.

My USB-Keyboard Coolermaster Quickfire TK was not responding in Grub2 (or at least making strange inputs like a,e,3 were possible, but on wrong buttons). Another usb- keyboard worked fine.

My solution was to turn the Keyboard itself into 6KRO Mode instead of NKRO Mode by pressing "6" and "ESC".

Turn off the fast boot in the BIOS (it worked for me).

When I hover to fast boot it says something like, fast boot is for minimizing device input for making the load faster or something, so when I turn fast boot off, and save the changes and restart my laptop it works!

Although some time has passed and several hints about not working keyboard in grub can be found on the web, i discovered a reason which to consider may help in some cases:

The USB keyboard may be unusuable in grub because another USB device is also plugged in which interferes with grub keyboard usage.

For details in such a case please see https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?57010

Mine was resolved by using a USB2 slot (removing from USB3 slot).

I tried enabling and disabling the BIOS keyboard support, didn't work. (Yes, keyboard works with the BIOS but not GRUB, but does work immediately after GRUB menu using CTRL-ALT-DLT to halt the boot process). While searching I saw someone else said about trying all USB ports. I remembered that the previous week I had moved the keyboard from one USB port to another to make space for a larger USB dongle to be plugged into a nearby USB port. So I moved the keyboard back to the USB port it was in previously and it works. Apparently on this Dell SC440, only some USB ports work with GRUB.

In my case there was Keyboard and mouse disabled in BIOS. Could look for this in the future.

Mine wouldn't work, In the Award Cmos Setup Utility, I changed first boot device to HDD and the other two disabled, and enabled USB keyboard and mouse, hope this helps.

I also had this problem and it turned out my mouse was somehow prohibiting the keyboard input. I unplugged it and everything worked fine.

Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04LTS dual boot, GRUB2 reinstalled using boot-repair, wireless USB keyboard, no keyboard recognized on GRUB2 screen resolved.

• BIOS Setup
• Integrated Peripherals
• Legacy USB Support --> [Enabled]

I now have up and down arrow keys on the GRUB2 screen. NumLock is now toggled off at boot time, but NBD.

I'm not sure how to mark it RESOLVED, but since it's not a new thread, I don't think I have the power.

I had the same problem but none of the above helped. In my case I had to enable the BIOS option "use USB in DOS".

In my experience, I had the boot set to "fast" which it would boot up faster, but in doing that, it didn't allow my keyboard to work in dual boot when I would turn on my laptop from shutdown. It would only work right going into ubuntu (obviously when keyboard doesn't work) and/or rebooting which brings back to dual-boot main screen setup. I loaded the default settings which set boot to "normal" and this solved it for me for those that who might be stuck and a last resort before doing a Ubuntu re-install. Hope this helps.

TL;DR. Try all your USB ports including all USB ports on your docking station if you have one.

I just experienced the same thing with a new installation of Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS and a following dist-upgrade now running the following:

• Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (lsb_release -a)
• 3.16.0-33-generic (uname -r)
• grub-install (GRUB) 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1 (grub-install --version)

The keyboard worked the first times I booted to GRUB so I could boot Windows 8.1 as well but then it suddenly stopped working without any good reason I thought. Just like OP I could use my keyboard in BIOS and USB Legacy keyboard was already enabled so no luck there. Finally I found a PS/2 keyboard which worked in GRUB menu and I could stop the countdown timer. I now tested my USB keyboard in all USB ports on my laptop and in the docking station and it only works with GRUB in one USB port.

Looking back at this of course there was a good explanation. I had moved my desk just after doing my dist-upgrade and had disconnected all cables while doing the move and then reconnected the keyboard to wrong USB port.

I hope this helps.

PROBLEM SOLVED, it was BIOS related (appears BIOS screen is skipped if rebooted with 5min of shut down). Changed boot sequence from Floppy,HDD to CDROM,HDD. Rebooted with NO CD in drive (GRUB not updated),keyboard now works at GRUB screen so can access all options. Now realise that I changed backup coin cell on motherboard around time I installed OpenOffice, suspect this changed boot sequence to default and somehow affected keyboard. Have compared current & previous grub.cfg – identical. Now have boot-repair disk ready for any future issues.