How to fix non-working USB (keyboard, mouse) after grub menu for full-disk encrypted installation?

Question

I have a freshly installed Ubuntu 14.04 on a Dell E5450. The hard disk is fully encrypted on installation.

The laptop's keyboard is working fine, yet I have trouble when trying an external USB keyboard and mouse. They just won't work past the grub menu.

(I even have the feeling that USB isn't working at all post-grub.)

It's not a hardware issue, as the Live Stick will boot with keyboard and mouse support just fine.

Yet once I have to enter the passphrase to unlock the encrypted hard disk, I cannot type and even in Ubuntu itself it won't be recognized.

I've looked into this issue and found a bug report, yet none of the provided workaround seems working for me.

I tried adding these to my modules list:

$ cat /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
# List of modules that you want to include in your initramfs.
# They will be loaded at boot time in the order below.
#
# Syntax:  module_name [args ...]
#
# You must run update-initramfs(8) to effect this change.
#
# Examples:
#
# raid1
# sd_mod

hid
usbhid
hid_generic
ohci_pci

and running

sudo update-initramfs -u

Yet no luck.

How can I fix my USB for Ubuntu14.04 using full disk encryption?

Answer 1

This is only half the answer, as it solved the problem at hand, yet introduces another.

For the 3.19 kernel, one needs the linux-image extra:

Since I have the version 3.19.0-31 (see uname -a), I intalled it via:

sudo apt-get install linux-image-extra-3.19.0-31-generic

Then the USB starts working again after grub and makes my external keyboard work.

Yet it broke gdm and Ubuntu booted in low graphics mode, and gnome-shell won't start.

That's why I followed the how to fix low graphics mode, and the relevant part for me was the Intel driver:

For Intel it is recommended to do the following after doing all the steps mentioned above but before installing anything (When you are in the Terminal). You can choose Xorg-Edgers which is a PPA that brings many improvements, latest video drivers and more:

Warning: This PPA is very unstable for some things. So do it with that in mind.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa -y

After that sudo apt-get update and you should receive several updates. X-Swat currently does not have Intel drivers in the latest versions of Ubuntu.

I also reinstalled gdm and and after reboot, I finally had working system again.