How do I get a RoseWill rk-8100 keyboard working?

Question

I am using this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823201048 keyboard , it works fine in windows and other version of linux like puppy linux , but when ever I try using it on ubuntu or any ubuntu based distro , the lights on the keyboard work but none of the keys do . I have pluged in other keyboards and they work , so I don't know what to think.

Answer 1

I believe this keyboard is unsupported. My brother just got the same keyboard and I have done some research on Rosewill's website. Not only are there no drivers but I can't seem to get Ubuntu to recognize it after several attempts.

Answer 2

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2134610

There's not much about getting this keyboard working in Linux on the web but after much searching and trial and error this is what works

• Ubuntu 13.04 (dev) using 3.8.0-17-generic
• Kanotix using kernel 3.8.2-2-486....

Not working

• Ubuntu 12.04 using kernel 3.2.0
• Ubuntu 12.10 using kernel 3.5.0

In short the older kernels do not support the Rosewill RIKB-11003 keyboard so if your new to GNU/Linux Ubuntu LinuxMint I would recommend waiting a bit and upgrading to Ubuntu 13.04 when it comes out later this month.

I found this solution also helped my RK-8100

There's plenty of guides for installing 3.8.5, but this is the one i used: http://www.upubuntu.com/2013/03/install-linux-kernel-385-in-ubuntu.html

cd /tmp 
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47950494/upubuntu.com/kernel-3.8.5 -O kernel-3.8.5 
chmod +x kernel-3.8.5 
sudo sh kernel-3.8.5 
sudo reboot

You can also find the packages here: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/