Not booting without Keyboard attached

    New to this, love how easy this setup was, even for a novice like myself. I have an older Intel NUC "DC3217IYE" that I have configured to run an autoexec auto play loop script for a media unit I am using at my shop TV on a wall. It works perfectly that way!

    However, I would LOVE if it did not require a keyboard hooked up on first boot up. I tested my setup if there was a power failure and was hoping it would fire right back up. It didn't, and hung forever right before the LibreELEC splash screen, except the second I plugged the keyboard in. I tried everything BIOS wise and it just hangs when nothing is plugged in. The second I plug a keyboard in it continues loading the LibreELEC. So I am fairly sure it isn't a BIOS reason.

    Any suggestions or is this considered normal and something that isn't configurable?

    Appreciate any feedback!

    • Best Answer

    The boot sequence is (at a high level): BIOS > Syslinux > KERNEL > SYSTEM

    If you don't see the syslinux prompt on-screen, it's a BIOS or (very old) hardware problem. If you see the syslinux prompt but no LE boot splash it probably hangs early in the KERNEL stage of boot before the splash has been rendered. If you make /flash writeable (mount -o remount,rw /flash) and remove "quiet" from kernel boot params you'll see verbose boot output on screen and messages can sometimes help to pinpoint what the problem is (take an in-focus pic with a phone and share it).

    I doubt there's too many users with c.2012 NUC hardware still in use, but in general there aren't reports of "my thing doesn't boot without a keyboard connected" and LE is intentionally designed to run on systems that don't have keyboards connected, so I'd be thinking a BIOS (might need updating) or hardware issues (PSU, coin-cell for BIOS memory, etc.) to be a more likely cause.

    Ok I will check into that, makes perfect sense. Right now I am cheating it with an old wireless dongle for a keyboard that was tossed. It works believe or not. I couldn't find anything about my minor issue, that's why I posted, but you are confirming it's likely the old hardware more than anything. Thanks for the advise!