I've finally got a build for PiBox that supports a proper xbmc build.  The latter took some finagling to force a cross compile that didn't pick up any bits and pieces from the build system.  So it's all checked in and the builds placed on the sd card and it's ready to test.  Except for some reason none of my keyboards work with the Raspberry Pi anymore.

The original keyboard I was using was wired through a powered USB hub so I could also have a wireless mouse and a USB wifi dongle and so I could easily switch the powered hub between the Pi, my BeagleBox and an APC board.  The mouse still works (I haven't checked the dongle) but the keyboard stopped working.  I plugged the keyboard into my desktop and it worked, but not quite completely.  I also tried it on my beaglebox, where it didn't work either.  I plugged the keyboard directly into the Pi and BeagleBox, skipping the powered hub, but no joy.

So I assumed the keyboard is broken.  I ordered a Logitech wireless keyboard.  When it arrived, I tried it on the Pi and BeagleBox.  No joy.  I plugged it into the desktop.  No joy.  Then I noticed it is one of the special Unified wireless devices from Logitech.  These require special software to enable the keyboard.  There is some open source software that can make this work, but I blew it off for now in favor of running to Target to get another wireless keyboard – one without special mongo features.

So the newer keyboard is a GE keyboard.  I plug it in to the Pi, BeagleBox and the desktop.  The first two – no joy.  The desktop worked fine with it.  So now I'm getting really freaked.  Did I munge the kernel config on both board builds?  I fiddled with the pibox build but then decided to blow that off and go get another GE wired keyboard from Target.  Wired is what worked before.

And no joy with either board, though the wired keyboard does work with the desktop.  So now I'm thinking I somehow I fried the USB ports on both boards.  Weird, cuz the wireless mouse still seems to work.  I checked the USB ports using u-boot on the beagleboard and they didn't seem to show the devices connected to the hub (not the OTG port).  You can't do that kind of check on the PiBox because it doesn't use a bootloader that's of any use to integration testing.  At least not as far as I've seen yet.

So perhaps I shocked the ports.  I had a blanket in my office that was causing me to get a lot of static shock when I sat at my desktop.  I shocked my wired mouse on my desktop a few times, but I don't remember shocking the Pi or BeagleBoard.  But maybe I did.

I've orderded two more Pi's.  If these work with the keyboards, then I'll order another BeagleBoard C4.  At the moment, I'm not convinced the ports are fried.  But I'm at a loss as to what else could be wrong with them.  And until I can fix the keyboard, I won't be able to test the lastest PiBox with XBMC builds.  Bummer.