Big Sur - USB keyboard (and mouse) not recognised

[Ritchie333]

I've managed to boot into the Big Sur installer on both my Optiplex 380 via OpenCore (see this thread) and on my Mac Pro 3,1 - however in both cases the keyboard and mouse don't respond and I can't progress any further than the language selection screen. On further inspection, there's no signal going to the keyboard as pressing Caps Lock doesn't turn the light on.

I thought the problem might be that Big Sur doesn't recognise USB 2 ports (AFAIK every supported Mac only has USB 3 and above); however I've got a USB 3 card in my Mac Pro and it doesn't recognise that either.

I can't see this problem reported anywhere else, and I'm not convinced it's specific to my EFI as a "real" Mac, albeit an unsupported one, has the same problem.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I've managed to boot into the Big Sur installer on both my Optiplex 380 via OpenCore (see this thread) and on my Mac Pro 3,1 - however in both cases the keyboard and mouse don't respond and I can't progress any further than the language selection screen. On further inspection, there's no signal going to the keyboard as pressing Caps Lock doesn't turn the light on.

I thought the problem might be that Big Sur doesn't recognise USB 2 ports (AFAIK every supported Mac only has USB 3 and above); however I've got a USB 3 card in my Mac Pro and it doesn't recognise that either.

I can't see this problem reported anywhere else, and I'm not convinced it's specific to my EFI as a "real" Mac, albeit an unsupported one, has the same problem.

Hi there.

You hit the nail on the head. The keyboard LEDs not showing is a sign the USB port has become de-activated.

Firstly you need to try all available ports to check if any stay live during the initial boot sequence. Usually one, at least, will. However, with a real Mac, and MacPro3,1 system definition, you will have other problems trying to install Big Sur anyway (as you already know) as support in macOS for this model has long been dropped.

Secondly place the USBInjectAll.kext (v0.7.3) into the EFI/OC/Kexts folder on your installer USB drive. This may keep the USB port you need active during boot.

You pointed towards a Clover guide for your Optiplex. This isn't OpenCore and the posters seem to explain a problem installing macOS after High Sierra. I'm not sure I could spot any relevance there, sorry.

The USB3 card you have in the Mac Pro may or may not work depending on which third-party chipset it uses. If it came with a driver CD chances are the drivers are outdated. GenericUSBXHCI.kext which can also be used to activate these cards, hasn't been updated for 5-years so, again, will have problems working.

 

[dariu]

I've managed to boot into the Big Sur installer on both my Optiplex 380 via OpenCore (see this thread) and on my Mac Pro 3,1 - however in both cases the keyboard and mouse don't respond and I can't progress any further than the language selection screen. On further inspection, there's no signal going to the keyboard as pressing Caps Lock doesn't turn the light on.

I thought the problem might be that Big Sur doesn't recognise USB 2 ports (AFAIK every supported Mac only has USB 3 and above); however I've got a USB 3 card in my Mac Pro and it doesn't recognise that either.

I can't see this problem reported anywhere else, and I'm not convinced it's specific to my EFI as a "real" Mac, albeit an unsupported one, has the same problem.

Userspace Issues | OpenCore Install Guide

 

[keys3429]

I've managed to boot into the Big Sur installer on both my Optiplex 380 via OpenCore (see this thread) and on my Mac Pro 3,1 - however in both cases the keyboard and mouse don't respond and I can't progress any further than the language selection screen. On further inspection, there's no signal going to the keyboard as pressing Caps Lock doesn't turn the light on.

I thought the problem might be that Big Sur doesn't recognise USB 2 ports (AFAIK every supported Mac only has USB 3 and above); however I've got a USB 3 card in my Mac Pro and it doesn't recognise that either.

I can't see this problem reported anywhere else, and I'm not convinced it's specific to my EFI as a "real" Mac, albeit an unsupported one, has the same problem.

I was having the same problem.
Using Opencore I set the Kernel -> Quirks -> XhciPortLimit -> False and put CtlnaAHCIPort.kext and USBInjectAll.kext in the kext folder. This pretty much gave me all the USB ports as USB2 which allowed my mouse and keyboard to work.
Eventually I ended up using USB Toolbox to map my USB ports and turn off the internal ones and ones that I had only USB 2 devices plugged in permanently. You run the exe under Windows (which I had to add an exception to get it open because of Windows defender virus scanner) and it scans your ports for you. I just pulgged both USB 2 and USB 3 devices into all the ports I wanted. After that you select the ports you want to enable, choose the Build UTBMap.kext option and it creates a USB mapping kext that you use together with the USBToolBox.kext and put them both in your kext folder. You just have to make sure you enable no more than 15 ports. I disabled port 1 and 2 (which are linked to 17 and 18) to stay under 16

After that you can change the Kernel -> Quirks -> XhciPortLimit back to True and remove the CtlnaAHCIPort.kext and USBInjectAll.kext kexts and you should be good to go.

 

[keys3429]

I disabled the kernal quirk for XHCI Port Limit and I have mouse and keyboard back.
Kernel -> Quirks -> XhciPortLimit -> False