From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 30 18:35:29 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 28CB137B404 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2003 18:35:29 -0800 (PST) Received: from snookles.snookles.com (snookles-host109.dsl.visi.com [208.42.127.109]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03A1E43F93 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2003 18:35:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from bobthomp@snookles.com) Received: from snookles.snookles.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by snookles.snookles.com (8.12.8/8.12.6) with ESMTP id h2V2ZRkT098903 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2003 20:35:27 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from bobthomp@snookles.com) Message-Id: <200303310235.h2V2ZRkT098903@snookles.snookles.com> From: Bob Thompson To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 20:35:27 -0600 Subject: Possible to use multiple keyboards simultaneously? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 02:35:30 -0000 Greetings. I'd *really* like to use multiple keyboards simultaneously on the same FreeBSD 4.x box(*). Console mode would be great, but I'd settle for an X11-only solution. A 5.x solution would be fine, too. The best I can find is using kbdcontrol(1) to choose which keyboard is the active one: # kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd0 < /dev/console # kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 < /dev/console ... where /dev/kbd0 is my PS/2 keyboard and /dev/kbd1 is (when plugged in) a USB keyboard. Like I said, I wish to have both active simultaneously. The man page for kbdcontrol(1) and ukbd(4) don't say anything that makes me hopeful. From what I see in the implementation of the CONS_SETKBD ioctl(), I'm even less hopeful. Hopefully I'm just wrong? /bob (*) I've got a Mini from FingerWorks, http://www.fingerworks.com/. When plugged in, it advertises itself both as a keyboard and as a mouse. Mar 18 22:25:59 littlebird /kernel: ukbd0: FingerWorks TouchStream Mini ver 1.09, rev 1.10/1.09, addr 2, iclass 3/1 Mar 18 22:25:59 littlebird /kernel: kbd1 at ukbd0 Mar 18 22:25:59 littlebird /kernel: ums0: FingerWorks TouchStream Mini ver 1.09, rev 1.10/1.09, addr 2, iclass 3/1 Mar 18 22:25:59 littlebird /kernel: ums0: 5 buttons and Z dir. It's a really cool thing mouse-wise: simultaneous multiple finger gestures are really cool. And useful. However, the keyboard isn't as nice to type on as my Kinesis. But there are some gestures that the Mini sends as a keyboard device, such as up/down/right/left arrows, not as a mouse device. Once you start dragging two fingers across a FingerWorks keyboard to move the mouse and a single finger to move the cursor, it gets addictive *very* quickly.