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Date:      Fri, 31 May 2002 15:43:34 -0400
From:      Lee Nelson <jld123@pobox.com>
To:        Damon Anton Permezel <dap@damon.com>
Cc:        Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com>, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: belkin omniview kvm switch lockup
Message-ID:  <3CF7D266.2FC19C1D@pobox.com>
References:  <3CF673F7.E082A003@muenchen.de> <20020530115551.A9384@Odin.AC.HMC.Edu> <005d01c20814$6146c030$52557f42@errno.com> <20020530154716.E15708@damon.com>

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I looked at the source for the FreeBSD mouse/keyboard drivers about
a year ago when I was having the same problem.  It turns out that
they, along with everyone else, make unwarranted assumptions about 
the state of the keyboard/mouse.    

In the case of the mouse specifically, the FreeBSD driver doesn't
make any attempt to notice odd data or try to resync on the data
packets if it loses sync - it just happily sends "off by N" garbage 
data to apps, or ceases to function entirely.

The FreeBSD drivers could be *much* better in this regard, but
I don't think they could ever be perfect.  The real answer is
to use an expensive KVM that continuously emulates keyboard and 
mouse for each machine, or just live with the occasional reboots.

For the record I use a 4 port Linksys KVM (rebadged Aten) which 
works well most of the time.  When I lose keyboard, power cycling 
the KVM or switching to a different unit and hitting a key nearly
always brings it back.  If I lose mouse though, the only hope
is a reboot.

  -Lee

Damon Anton Permezel wrote:
> 
> Sam,
> I have often been plagued by my KVM getting stuck.
> I have an ATen CS-106 Master View.
> 
> Current failure mode is when the 4.6-RC kernel is stopped in the
> debugger over the serial port, if I switch to the look at the screen,
> I get stuck.
> 
> I have seen this on other machines running loonix, with the same KVM.
> 
> I have also noticed that if I reboot a machine, the BIOS has to get
> past a certain spot before the KVM will switch.
> 
> I find that I can wait a while and it eventually switches.  Sometimes.
> In combination with turning on and off the power on the KVM and hitting
> the switches from different angles and sacrificing small animals on the
> keyboard.
> 
> I'd love to hear an explanation of what is causing this.
> 
> On Thu, May 30, 2002 at 12:58:33PM -0700, Sam Leffler wrote:
> > I'm having problems with a belkin 2-port ps/2 omniview switch (F1DS102P).  I
> > have two machines connected; one running win2K the other freebsd-stable.  I
> > boot the win2k machine first and everything is ok--kbd and mouse work, the
> > port switches on the front work, and the hotswap keys are accessible.  I
> > power on the freebsd system (an emachines box) and things work at the bios
> > level but once -stable boots the kvm is stuck on the port where the freebsd
> > machine is hooked.  Front panel switches are inoperable and the hotswap keys
> > are inaccessible.  If I pull the keyboard and mouse cables for the freebsd
> > box then I can switch to the port where the win2k machine is located but the
> > keyboard is not usable (I can use the mouse to shutdown the machine).  The
> > only way to reset the kvm is to power everything down and yank cables (the
> > kvm gets power from the ps/2 ports).
> >
> > Seems like the -stable atkdb driver is somehow confusing the kvm.  Belkin
> > "tech support" has no clues (the switch firmware is flash upgradable but no
> > updates on the web site look worth trying).
> >
> > Has anyone used this switch w/ non-windows and/or non-mac systems w/ any
> > success?  I tried fiddling with the flags on atkbdc to reset/not-reset on
> > boot w/ no effect.
> >
> >     Sam
> >
> >
> > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
> 
> --
> --
> Damon Permezel
> dap@damon.com
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message

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