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Date:      Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:23:40 -0800
From:      "Peter Wemm" <peter@wemm.org>
To:        Volker <volker@vwsoft.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>, Andriy Gapon <avg@icyb.net.ua>, freebsd-usb@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: usb keyboard dying at loader prompt
Message-ID:  <e7db6d980811111223j438bb0e4se411682393460862@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4919E65C.1020307@vwsoft.com>
References:  <4912E462.4090608@icyb.net.ua> <491586B9.2020303@vwsoft.com> <4919851B.7050800@icyb.net.ua> <e7db6d980811111055j24ed8f4rb4539c6678553b97@mail.gmail.com> <4919E65C.1020307@vwsoft.com>

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On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:09 PM, Volker <volker@vwsoft.com> wrote:
> On 11/11/08 19:55, Peter Wemm wrote:
>> ...
>> * There were other consequences of using the partition ID hack - I
>> think I remember it turning off the apic for msdos mode.
>>
>> Your problems may be different, but mine were caused by a BIOS
>> whitelist of MBR partition id's.  What a stupid problem.  On that
>> motherboard I ended up taking the path of least resistance and using
>> the PS/2 adapter plug on the keyboard.
>
> Peter,
>
> very interesting what you've found. That reminds me on some
> investigations I did as I was hunting USB boot device problems.
>
> Some BIOSes do not check the partition (slice) ID but are looking for a
> file system magic. If a FAT filesystem is detected, the BIOS does some
> stupid things (like ignoring the active partition flag and booting the
> FAT slice no matter what you've flagged active). Just an example and
> off-topic to Andriy's keyboard problem.
>
> But when combining that with your findings, it may still be a thing to
> check for... ;)
>
> Volker

I have long since stopped being surprised by what bios writers come up
with.  Or should I say "windows boot loader" instead of bios, because
that is what it seems to have degenerated into these days.

-- 
Peter Wemm - peter@wemm.org; peter@FreeBSD.org; peter@yahoo-inc.com; KI6FJV
"All of this is for nothing if we don't go to the stars" - JMS/B5
"If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete
themselves upon execution." -- Robert Sewell



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