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From: Stacy Millions <stacy@Millions.Ca>
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cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: USB keyboard thoughts.
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David Gilbert wrote:
> I acquired my first motherboard that does not have ps/2 keyboard and
> mouse connectors on it this week.  It's a funny thing ... because a
> keyboard connector seems to be all it doesn't have.  It has 6 ide
> channels, digital audio, firewire and 6 USB ports.
> 
> Anyways, usb keyboards don't work that smoothly.  If the keyboard
> emulation is set to 'BIOS' ... you can do things like edit the RAID
> config (onboard) or a PCI card BIOS config... but the keyboard won't
> show up at all to FreeBSD.
> 
> With the keyboard compatibility set to 'OS' ... FreeBSD sees and uses
> the keyboard.  Two caveat's, however.  The boot loader is inaccessible
> in this mode and if the keyboard is not plugged in on boot, it cannot
> be plugged in later.  The system recognises ukbd0 when it's plugged
> in, but it doesn't attach to the console.
> I fear that we'll see more motherboards like this.
> 
> Dave.
> 

Can't help much with the motherboar/bios issues, but I have been
using an USB keyboard (or rather a USB PS2 keyboard/mouse adapter,
Raritan APSUSB) plugged into my Sony Z505 notebook for about 4
years now.

I have to use kbdcontrol to switch control from the builtin to the
usb one with the line below

/usr/sbin/kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 </dev/console

You probably need to put a line like that in your usbd.conf. Then
the keyboard should work if you plug it in after booting. I suspect
you would need to use /dev/kbd0 not kbd1 though.

If the keyboard emulation is set to BIOS, does the keyboard work with
the bootloader?

BTW, I think Dmitry meant the make/model of the motherboard, not the
keyboard (and I'm curious too).

-stacy