infinity ergodox doesn't seem to have any effect in bios and grub portions of boot on a HP z420 workstation

[razamatan]

here's a log of the irc: 14:56 razamatan> infinity ergodox. during boot, my keyboard can't trigger getting into the bios.
it's only "active" during OS boot... 14:56 razamatan> is there a workaround aside from plugging in another keyboard? 14:56 HaaTa> hmm 14:56 HaaTa> so, I have gotten a few reports about this 14:56 HaaTa> there are a couple things to try 14:57 HaaTa> bios options related to usb 14:57 HaaTa> (bios may not be following the spec and requesting a boot keyboard) 14:57 HaaTa> force keyboard into boot mode 14:58 HaaTa> (I need to see if I have any problemmatic bios's around) 14:58 HaaTa> for whatever reason I tend to pick computers with less shitty ones, lol 14:58 razamatan> i'm using a hp z420.. i snooped around its bios, and there's no usb keyboard settings 14:59 HaaTa> usb legacy? 14:59 razamatan> nope.. 14:59 HaaTa> ehci? 14:59 razamatan> it's a more recent workstation class machine 14:59 razamatan> nope 14:59 razamatan> unless i'm missing something... 15:00 razamatan> https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4_OOVkajLAhUP52MKHXdaDswQtwIIHDAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGOsaR8S35mg&usg=AFQjCNFND9N9P2XKwwwVPK4aryKCoLPYew&sig2=T5iRY3R6Xfc5AAuLvUDXQQ&bvm=bv.116274245,d.cGc 15:02 razamatan> around the 3m mark is probably the closest it gets to anything that could head toward usb settings 15:02 HaaTa> haha, yeah I saw that 15:02 HaaTa> nothing I can see for settings 15:02 HaaTa> so, one thing that can be done is to default the keyboard in 6KRO mode 15:02 HaaTa> then set to NKRO 15:03 HaaTa> (it might be a firmware bug) 15:03 razamatan> i'm guessing that's a KLL specific setting... no option in the web configurator? 15:03 HaaTa> but unless I have the computer in person and attach a usb logic analyzer I can't know for sure 15:04 HaaTa> yeah, I haven't added a configurator option yet 15:04 HaaTa> (mostly because I'm a terrible web dev) 15:04 HaaTa> there are quite a few configuration options for the keyboard 15:05 razamatan> is there a list? 15:05 HaaTa> so, a list can be generated by looking at capabilities.kll files 15:06 HaaTa> hmm, there might not be a default setting option...shouldn't take me more than 5 minutes to add though 15:06 HaaTa> should be here -> https://github.com/kiibohd/controller/blob/master/Output/pjrcUSB/capabilities.kll 15:06 HaaTa> you can swap between modes though 15:06 HaaTa> U"A" : kbdProtocolBoot(); 15:06 HaaTa> U"A" : kbdProtocolNKRO(); 15:07 HaaTa> is how the kll configuration would look like 15:07 razamatan> is the default NKRO? 15:08 HaaTa> yes 15:09 razamatan> i noticed that hitting my layer shift key did nothing 15:09 HaaTa> https://github.com/kiibohd/controller/blob/master/Output/pjrcUSB/output_com.c#L117 15:11 HaaTa> hmm? 15:11 razamatan> even in the grub screen the keyboard did nothing.. 15:11 razamatan> only when the os kernel is loaded does it respond normally 15:11 razamatan> dunno if that helps anything.. 15:12 razamatan> i'll have to try the boot toggle for now 15:12 razamatan> but how would that work? 15:12 razamatan> b/c whenever i rebooted, the keyboard would go into this state 15:12 razamatan> do i have to go to 6KRO before i reboot to test? 15:14 HaaTa> so 15:14 HaaTa> generally when you reboot 15:14 HaaTa> usb is reset 15:14 HaaTa> then, bios hands usb control over to the bios 15:14 HaaTa> erm 15:15 HaaTa> grub/bootloader 15:15 HaaTa> (this is why it doesn't work in grub either) 15:15 HaaTa> then 15:15 HaaTa> when the OS starts, the OS is supposed to reset the usb bus 15:15 HaaTa> which is how NKRO starts working 15:15 HaaTa> so, you should be able to flash the firmware 15:15 HaaTa> then press the 6KRO mode button 15:15 HaaTa> then the keyboard will just work 15:16 HaaTa> no usb bus resetting is required 15:16 razamatan> but does that mean i lose NKRO? 15:16 HaaTa> (I do fanciness with multiple usb descriptors to make this work) 15:16 HaaTa> temporarily 15:16 HaaTa> you can just re-enable NKRO
15:16 HaaTa> the same way 15:16 razamatan> sorry for my slowness.. please bear w/ me.. 15:16 razamatan> :) 15:17 HaaTa> haha, np, this is annoyingly complicated 15:17 razamatan> i map some key to NKRO toggling 15:17 HaaTa> because BIOS engineers suck 15:17 razamatan> probably not in a layer 15:17 HaaTa> so, layers shouldn't matter 15:17 HaaTa> because, they are handled inside the keyboard firmware 15:17 razamatan> do i even bind to a key? 15:17 razamatan> i'm pretty confused at this point.. 15:18 HaaTa> I'd bind it to function key 15:18 razamatan> if there's some prewritten doc that i could read 15:18 HaaTa> yeah, for 6KRO/NKRO, not currently.... 15:18 razamatan> all teh function keys are layer-1 number keys? 15:18 HaaTa> https://github.com/kiibohd/controller/issues file me a bug for writting something on that :P 15:19 HaaTa> f1 is function shift 1 15:19 HaaTa> to layer 1 15:19 HaaTa> F1 is normal F1 15:22 razamatan> issue 96 15:23 razamatan> hitting f1 for me during boot does nothing 15:25 razamatan> so in layer0, defing left f1 to be kdbdProtocolBoot() 15:25 razamatan> ? 15:25 razamatan> in my kll 15:25 razamatan> compile and load 15:25 razamatan> then hit what is now kbdProtocolBoot() 15:25 razamatan> then reboot? 15:26 HaaTa> yes 15:26 HaaTa> so 15:26 HaaTa> you can test to make sure it's in 6KRO mode two ways 15:26 HaaTa> use this page http://www.gigahype.com/nkey-rollover-test-page/ 15:26 HaaTa> make sure you can only press 6 keys at a time (not including modifiers) 15:27 HaaTa> the other way is to use the debug cli 15:27 HaaTa> (there's a wiki on the github page for setting that up) 15:27 razamatan> i've been in the debug cli before 15:29 razamatan> once i'm in 6kro, then i reboot..? 15:29 razamatan> won't it reinit to nkro? 15:31 HaaTa> yes 15:31 HaaTa> you can press the key whenever you want to go into 6KRO mode 15:33 razamatan> so that setting persists even w/ the usb being reset on boot.. 15:33 HaaTa> also, a neat feature for the ergodox would be to have an LCD screen message when in 6kro mode 15:33 razamatan> yeah 15:33 HaaTa> razamatan: it may 15:33 HaaTa> it all depends on how the usb host computer does the reset 15:33 razamatan> man.. so this isn't guaranteed.. 15:33 razamatan> heh 15:33 HaaTa> there's nothing I can really do about that 15:33 HaaTa> unless I want to possible destroy the keyboard 15:33 razamatan> right.. 15:34 razamatan> having the lcd show the mode would help here 15:34 HaaTa> plz file github issue :D 15:34 HaaTa> this way I can tell you it's ready 15:34 razamatan> to determine if the reboot is futzing w/ the 6kro 15:34 HaaTa> yep 15:34 HaaTa> doesn't work with all keyboards 15:34 HaaTa> but it's a start 15:34 razamatan> i'm probably going to cut and paste this chat 15:34 HaaTa> yep 15:34 HaaTa> that's totes coo 15:35 razamatan> coo

[Guppster]

Any update on this? I need my ergodox infinity to be in 6rko

[razamatan]

the configurator has support for a 6/n-kro toggle for awhile now. i forgot to update this issue on what i've been doing in the wild since haata doesn't have a repro. i'll do this now.

i have been happily using this to toggle to 6kro when in bios/bootloader contexts. whenever i need to interact in these contexts, i wait until i'm in them, then i toggle over the 6kro by using the toggle key which is mapped on layer 2 for me (so my concern about mapping this toggle in non-base layers is gone). i then let it go on.

it turns out, as soon as the kernel/os is fully booted, it resets the usb connection such that i don't need to toggle back to nkro. since the default on init for the ergodox is to be nkro, the reload of the usb connection during os boot sequences work fine to get it back to the default nkro state. verified w/ various *nix and windows 10 booting.

haata, feel free to resolve this issue since there is a well supported workaround, unless you want to keep this to track coming up with a way to work around bios issues.

[razamatan]

another update. i moved to a computer that is fully non-csm uefi, and the infinity is still not mapped correctly until i switch to 6kro. the behavior when under bios and uefi as far as nkro infinity is inconsistent between the two, but consistent individually.