Keyboard of Raspberry Pi 500 (and probably 500+) can be made useless when logging in using SSH and trying to run game

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mob-i-l: Posts: 387; Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 2:45 am

Keyboard of Raspberry Pi 500 (and probably 500+) can be made useless when logging in using SSH and trying to run game

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Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:29 am

I have this issue with the game flappy birds in Raspberry Pi 500 and wonder if this issue also exists in Raspberry Pi 500+:
https://github.com/mobluse/rpi-keyboard-config/issues/1

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ssh raspberrypi500
cd rpi-keyboard-config/src/
python -m RPiKeyboardConfig.game

When the game is waiting for Esc+Enter on the Raspberry Pi 500 to unlock the keyboard nothing happens when you type on the keyboard and not even the off/on button works. One way to fix this is to press Esc+Enter on Raspberry Pi 500. Pressing Esc+Enter does not work if the SSH session is terminated, then rebooting or shutting down or restarting doesn't help. The only solution then AFAIK is to shutdown and pull the plug and insert it again.

Have Pi0&1A&1B&1B+&2B&3B&4B&500 w/ rasPiOS. Started w/ BASIC on ABC80&ZX81 then Forth, Z80... https://scratch.mit.edu/users/mobluse/ https://github.com/mobluse/ https://x.com/mobluse/ https://YouTube.com/MOBiL4u/

User avatar jojopi: Posts: 4360; Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: Keyboard of Raspberry Pi 500 (and probably 500+) can be made useless when logging in using SSH and trying to run gam

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Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:14 am

mob-i-l wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 14, 2025 1:29 am
When the game is waiting for Esc+Enter on the Raspberry Pi 500 to unlock the keyboard [...] One way to fix this is to press Esc+Enter on Raspberry Pi 500.

So far, so good.

Pressing Esc+Enter does not work if the SSH session is terminated,

Yes. You have to start another SSH session and try to run the game again (or any rpi-keyboard-config command). The message that appears seems to confirm that this is exactly what they intended:

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Keyboard is waiting for unlock. Not usable until unlocked or power cycled.

I have to admit that I do not really understand the purpose of the locked and unlocked states, even. But this third "unusable" state does seem particularly unhelpful.

On 500+, the power key still works. I do not think it is really part of the keyboard; I think it is wired like the power button on a Pi5. But putting the machine into standby does not help anyway. The keyboard remains unusable until unlocked or power cycled.

mathewb64: Raspberry Pi Engineer & Forum Moderator
Raspberry Pi Engineer & Forum Moderator; Posts: 7; Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2025 2:31 pm

Re: Keyboard of Raspberry Pi 500 (and probably 500+) can be made useless when logging in using SSH and trying to run gam

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Tue Oct 14, 2025 12:31 pm

The locked/waiting for unlock/unlocked states are done by Vial https://get.vial.today/docs/security.html. Holding Enter+Esc will only unlock the keyboard when something is polling it for unlock, hence why you have to run an rpi-keyboard-config command to complete the unlock process if it was previously abandoned.

jojopi wrote: On 500+, the power key still works. I do not think it is really part of the keyboard; I think it is wired like the power button on a Pi5.

Yes that's correct on the 500+. On the 500, the power key is connected to the rp2040, which in software handles toggling the pi power button. It should probably be changed so the power button always works even in the waiting for unlock state.