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+-- Forum: Pinebook Pro (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=111)
+--- Forum: General Discussion on Pinebook Pro (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=112)
+--- Thread: Spontaneous numlock (/showthread.php?tid=13576)
RE: Spontaneous numlock - ab1jx - 04-18-2021
Yeah, but firmware doesn't live in an EPROM anymore, it's just files in /lib/fimware so what's in one OS isn't in another.
I remember a big deal with the Apple II getting it to do something like scan the keyboard as it was refreshing dynamic RAM. And 6502 games written in assembly and how fast they were. I taught myself some 8088 assembly years later. And actually got so I could mix Turbo Pascal or C calling my assembly rouiines. Don't think I have any of it anymore. This was in DOS days, I wrote something that would do the rotating dash with -/|\| characters along one screen line, drop down a line, go across all of them and back up one end. A86 assembler but I also had a couple others. I hadn't learned about framebuffer graphics yet.
Gonna try my NumLock in mrfixit stretch, don't remember if it works or not.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - KC9UDX - 04-18-2021
Linux "firmware" isn't really firmware, it's software. That's not what we're up against here.
The firmware for the keyboard does indeed reside in an FROM chip that belongs to the keyboard and touchpad. It runs on a dedicated microcontroller. Here is the wiki entry (which doesn't really describe this well) https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinebook_Pro#Keyboard
I always admired the 6502. So much that I still use it a lot today. ARM processors are technically 6502-inspired.
This thread suggests that there are other PBPs with the same issue as yours.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - ab1jx - 04-18-2021
My NumLk is the same in Bullseye, mrfixit stretch, and Manjaro, I just made the rounds again.
BUT I set the keyboard type to a Logitech in mrfixit and in Bullseye it's back to "Generic 105 key PC (intl)". So while the NumLk issue may live in some strange location, it may be independent of the keyboard type. Brightness keys (Fn-F1 and Fn-F2?) still don't work. That's even after installing a couple of Ayufan's files that were supposed to fix them.
Keyboard types in Debian are set with dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration (Like anybody can remember that). It has a screen for model, one for layout, one for the AltGr key, one for the compose key and a last one of whether Control-Alt-Backspace should kill the X server. It's all different in Manjaro, but the Debian's the same in Raspbian. You can safely edit the config files in /etc/default it says in some man page. dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration runs at a console level, it's a Whiptail dialog, you see the same thing in X.
I didn't find any GPU video player anywhere, I thought mrfixit had one. With omxplayer on a RPI 3B you can watch 1920x1080 video with almost no CPU involvement, it's just passing stuff to the GPU.
My nvme drive was the hero of the day, I could just mount it and take notes no matter what I was in.
I never had a 6502.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - KC9UDX - 04-18-2021
Well you're going to have to follow the wiki instructions to update the keyboard firmware, I'm pretty sure. Just make sure to heed the warning about which chip you have.
You can buy a new 65c02 for a few dollars. For some reason for nearly forty years I always thought you couldn't run it on one of those solderless breadboards, but it turns out you can, at 1MHz. I'm not sure it would work any faster than that in that way. There's a guy named Ben Eater selling a kit so that you can build an entire 6502-based computer on those breadboards.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - ab1jx - 04-18-2021
I thought there was a reason to not update your firmware more than once. I've definitely done it, I still have the files and I know I used them. I held off for a long time because I got mine just over a year ago and it was questionable whether it needed it or not. It was made very late in 1999 I think. I didn't see any change after I did it. I thought I had some output copied from the screen, now I can't find it. I saw it today, maybe I deleted it.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - KC9UDX - 04-18-2021
It seems that if you have the "incorrect" chip, the limitation is that you can only write the flash ROM 8 times. So unless you've already done this more than once, I'd say it's pretty safe to do it once more. It also looks like these chips were maybe only used since covid, so you might not have it anyway.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - ab1jx - 04-19-2021
OK, done again. It made no difference.
What was different is that I couldn't ssh back into it for step 2 because the networking wasn't up. "no route to host". There's an option somewhere in Debian at least of whether you want to wait for the network (DHCP really) to come back up before boot continues. I probably have that off because otherwise booting hangs a few minutes until it times out.
But I boot to a console anyway (touchpad seemed to not work also) so after I went downstairs and fetched a USB keyboard I got back in OK. I think last time ssh worked.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - KC9UDX - 04-19-2021
Did you then complete all the steps and the problem persists?
If so, what is the source of the firmware you used?
RE: Spontaneous numlock - ab1jx - 04-19-2021
git clone https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/pinebook-pro-keyboard-updater
I went back to the wiki and did a fresh download in case it had changed.
RE: Spontaneous numlock - KC9UDX - 04-19-2021
If that's what you used, I wonder if you have the "wrong" chip and your writes are unsuccessful. Else I have to defer to someone else who has used that. From what I've read, it's specifically supposed to fix the problem you have.