How to Fix Keyboard Not Working After Ubuntu Update.
I recently upgraded my Ubuntu from 17.10 to 18.04 and after reboot the keyboard stopped working. It works on lock screen but never logged in. It turns out that this is a fairly common problem. The keyboard input driver crashes after every major update, causing confusion between the Ubuntu OS and input devices.
You can easily fix this by reinstalling the input X server driver. But since the keyboard doesn’t work initially, it gets a little tricky. And no, the external USB keyboard doesn’t work either. So, here’s how to fix the keyboard not working after Ubuntu update.
Fix keyboard not working in Ubuntu 18.04
Case 1: keyboard and mouse work on the lock screen
In this case, you have your keyboard and trackpad running on the lock screen, you can directly start a terminal session by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F3 and go to that step.
Case 2: keyboard doesn’t work but mouse works on lock screen
Step 1: In this case, log in using the onscreen keyboard. You can enable it by clicking the Accessibility or Person icon in the upper right corner. After you are logged in, we need to re-enable the onscreen keyboard. To do this, open the “Settings” menu by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner. Then click the gear icon in the drop-down menu.
Read: 3 Ways to Set Up a Static IP Address in Ubuntu
Step 2: From the Settings menu, click Accessibility on the left tab to go to the Hearing & Dialing menu.
Step 3. From the Accessibility menu, go to the Typing menu. Click the slider next to the On-Screen Keyboard text on the On-Screen Keyboard.
Step 4: Now that we have an on-screen keyboard, we need a terminal to run the command. To open a terminal, right-click on the desktop and select “Open Terminal”.
Step 5: After starting the terminal, enter the following command and press Enter.
Sometimes Ubuntu might try to become a fanatic and ask for a password even after entering sudo. Just enter your password using the onscreen keyboard. sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-all
It should prompt for input again, press Y and press Enter again.
After we have installed the X Server keyboard input drivers, reboot your system. When the system is restored and up and running, you can use your keyboard and mouse.
Case 3: keyboard and mouse not working
In case the keyboard, trackpad and mouse do not work for you even on the lock screen, we need to launch the terminal during the boot itself. To do this, forcibly shutdown the system using physical keys.
While the system is starting up, press and hold the Shift key after the BIOS boots, and you will enter the GRUB menu. From the GRUB menu press “e” to change the boot options. Find the line that looks like this. linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-25-generic root = UUID = a98c605-2ac4-4ee3-8070-2560255293fe ro quiet splash $ vt_handoff
Paste “/ bin / bash” before $ vt_handoff and press Ctrl + X or F10 to reboot. Once you enter the command, run the following command and reboot your system again. sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-all
After rebooting, your keyboard and mouse should work for you.
Modifying the GRUB file is a temporary change, not a permanent change. So if boot fails, just restart the system and it will return to normal.
Packaging
Ubuntu is a good free operating system to switch to if you don’t want to spend money on a Windows license. However, Ubuntu has its own set of problems that take time to fix. Read our other articles on 15 must-have applications on Ubuntu right after a fresh install and how to get Linux running on Windows with a virtual machine.
Let me know in the comments below in case of any problems or questions.
How to Fix Keyboard Not Working After Ubuntu Update