Keyboard and mouse input not working with PVE 7.0 Installer and HP iLO4

[Cornelicorn]

Hi,
I'm trying to install PVE 7.0 on a HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen8 with the iso mounted through the HTML5 console. I can start the insttaller fine but the mouse is really sluggish and as soon as I move my mouse outside the virtual console, I cannot interact with the installer anymore. So any mouse movement, clicks and keyboard actions don't get recognized.
i have to admit, this does not sound like an issue with the installer, but the 6.4 installer works fine and also the mouse movement isn't sluggish there.

 

[Matt46]

Hi Cornelicorn,
Whenever you move the mouse outside the virtual console, the interaction with the HP iLO console stops. This is by design.
With the new 7.0 installer, I noticed more sluggish interaction than with the 6.4 one...
Keeping the mouse pointer within the iLO window at top of desktop allows interaction with the connected server. Might seem a bit odd, but is by design to prevent un-wanted actions on the server...

 

[Cornelicorn]

Hi Cornelicorn,
Whenever you move the mouse outside the virtual console, the interaction with the HP iLO console stops. This is by design.
With the new 7.0 installer, I noticed more sluggish interaction than with the 6.4 one...
Keeping the mouse pointer within the iLO window at top of desktop allows interaction with the connected server. Might seem a bit odd, but is by design to prevent un-wanted actions on the server...

I know that it is by design that if you hover the mouse outside the window this is meant to stop interaction. My problem is that if I hover the mouse outside of the window once, I cannot interact with the installer again when the mouse is over the console window (or close and reopen the console, switch the browser tab, focus another window on my desktop, etc.).

 

[Cornelicorn]

I now also experienced the problem with other bullseye-based installations, so this does not seem to be bullseye-related.

 

[t.lamprecht]

See: https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3507 a user reported improvement when forcing intel_iommu=off in the kernel command line, also it seems that really only the console framebuffer and/or input devices are affected - the system itself works OK (e.g., when connected via SSH or web-interface)

This may well be an issue with iLO and newer kernels, which both Debian Bullseyse (5.10 kernel) and Proxmox VE 7.0 (5.11 kernel) have.

 

[Matt46]

I know that it is by design that if you hover the mouse outside the window this is meant to stop interaction. My problem is that if I hover the mouse outside of the window once, I cannot interact with the installer again when the mouse is over the console window (or close and reopen the console, switch the browser tab, focus another window on my desktop, etc.).

Ok, understand.
Is it also not possible for you to interact with the installer again if:
- after moving the mouse back over the console window, you left-click once in the console window?
I also have noticed, that for me to interact with the console again, the mouse-pointer needs to be e.g. for bash in the area of the input/output section of the screen, not just the ILO console.

 

[MichaelTrip]

I discovered i have this issue too. I have intel_iommu enabled. Is there any update on this?

 

[t.lamprecht]

Some others with a related issue that intremap=off helps them.

 

[mathx]

Keyboard works for me here except random keystrokes are sent, including ctrl keys (for eg, i have discovered '5' = 'backspace'). I can almost get through all the menus with cut-and-pasting random stuff in (that i can change once it's installed after i ssh in with a cut-n-pasted root password from elsewhere amongst the install screens lol), but finding the @ key to get a valid email address in to get to the next screen is my current stumbling block.

note that the problems start right at grub - cannot hit enter on the grub INSTALL PVE first entry. So I dont think this is a linux issue specifically, but an ILO/HTML5 problem.

system is a DL360/9, with bios dates in 2019, so prob not up to date, but pretty recent.

EDIT: deleting the part of @example.invalid so it's @example.in lets me move forward on both last screens with an address and hostname in india

(maybe scrap the installer checking or give a 'ITS OK I KNOW WHAT IM DOING' button for mouse-only installs. course one must get past the GRUB boot by hitting enter, which I figured out is the / key if that helps anyone else.)

m4dh4x as usual when installing professional enterprise level i-paid-my-license-to-a-multibillion-$-company install situation.

(which i usually never use, im a FLOSS guy, this client wants it tho )

 

[t.lamprecht]

note that the problems start right at grub - cannot hit enter on the grub INSTALL PVE first entry. So I dont think this is a linux issue specifically, but an ILO/HTML5 problem.

Ah yeah, the great ILO.. Did you also try the virtual keyboard settings? Also, what browser was used and what locale was configured there?

As, FWIW, we have a DL380p Gen8 in our testlab and keyboard is working relatively fine there via the HTML remote console, at least not getting such random key to character mappings like you describe.

 

[mathx]

There's only hotkeys in the virtual keyboard and only settings are US101 vs JP-something keyboards (I did try setting to JP and back and didnt help).

Apparently a windows box attached directly to the BMC/ILO lan works just fine. Ill have to use the damn vpn (vs portforwarding to a vnc session in a ct on another proxhost that has a port on the ilo lan). Did try firefox and chrome, both not working....(and of course java doesnt work "unsigned app" error) - bizarre.

 

[mathx]

Turns out this is a VNC server implimentation failure - tightvncserver does not impliment some Xkeyboard features qt5 needs.

(I never put BMC/ILO on external networks, always on RFC1918 ips, and I never route them/give them a gateway for security reasons. Instead I put a jumphost on the bmc network and run a vncserver (with cutdown X wm like ice-wm) on localhost only, and SSH port forward into it, then connect to that - works great on my phone too with connectbot port forwards and a vncclient).

https://unix.stackexchange.com/ques...-only-in-specific-applications-under-tightvnc

My solution was to install vnc4server instead, which seems to be a wrapper for tigervnc (which I had previously tried but didnt work), so not sure what the wrapper does, but it works.

Technically this is not proxmox related, but in case anyone runs into this issue.