Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 14:21:15 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Fabian Thylmann <fthylmann@maximizemedia.de> Cc: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SMP Kernel only booting with keyboard? Message-ID: <3D4854CB.281A8CBE@mindspring.com> References: <014201c237ec$f0a945b0$0201000a@sonic> <3D46F9C0.D1E25132@mindspring.com> <003b01c238b6$6173af50$0201000a@sonic>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Fabian Thylmann wrote: > I upgraded the bios to the newest version, and there is no option about > anything with the keyboard. > > So is there some other reason for this maybe? You bought the wrong motherboard? Some BIOS require that a keyboard be present. Of these, some will allow you to turn this requirement off in the "advanced setup". Whole companies exist to sell "keyboard dongles": little devices that plug into a keyboard connector, and pretend to be a keyboard well enough to fool these BIOSs. FreeBSD somewhat complicates matters, because it's keyboard probe is rather "aggressive". This also tends to make FreeBSD cause KVM switches, such as the Belkin OmniView line with firmware versions below 1.9 to barf. This is basically to allow probing for the keyboard, which is required to be able to perform a hardware reset line trigger on older systems, and to permit probing for a PS/2 mouse, where the BIOS data is unreliable or the BIOS does not contain explicit mouse support. Nevertheless, Windows doesn't have this problem, even on very old machines. The real answer is to buy only "rack ready" motherboards, if you intend to run without a keyboard present. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-smp" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3D4854CB.281A8CBE>