Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 12:38:13 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp> Cc: Sean Kelly <smkelly@zombie.org>, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: FreeBSD's aggressive keyboard probe/attach Message-ID: <3B7589A5.C2B1DE00@mindspring.com> References: <20010807234645.A573@edgemaster.zombie.org> <20010809032027.A99813@xor.obsecurity.org> <20010810174521.A681@edgemaster.zombie.org> <200108110241.LAA20110@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp> <20010810221944.A90165@edgemaster.zombie.org> <200108110627.PAA21155@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp> <20010811013959.A588@edgemaster.zombie.org> <200108110828.RAA21659@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp>
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Kazutaka YOKOTA wrote: > Ok, I am getting the picture. I think the keyboard driver is thinking > it has done the right thing to the keyboard (to turn LEDs on, setting > the repeat rate, etc), and is not in the infinite loop. This is > the reason why this is a keyboard lock-up rather than system lock-up. > > I guess that the way our keyboard driver talks to the keyboard > seems to put the keyboard or the keyboard controller on the motherboard > somehow in a wrong state in yor case ;-( FreeBSD's keyboard driver probe and initialization code are exceedingly agressive, compared to other OS's, since historically FreeBSD didn't have the BIOS around to ask about it or things like the PS/2 mouse. This tends to screw up a lot of things, particularly when the keyboard or mouse is not present on boot, etc.. In addition, the PS/2 mouse driver is smart enough to bitch about synchronization, but too stupid to resynchronize (reset) when it happens. Duh. Finally, most keyboard/mouse/monitor switches don't work with FreeBSD; for example, the Belkin console extender that uses the ethernet cable doesn't work at all (it's the best one out there), and the local wiring (non-ethernet version) of the Belkin OmniView switches work if the FreeBSD mouse/keyboard is selected at boot time, so that the aggressive probe/attach can satisfy itself. Belkin went out of its way to support FreeBSD specifically, actually: their firmware version 1.9 fixes the local wiring switches, so that they can pass FreeBSD's aggressive probe, even if the FreeBSD mouse/keyboard is _not_ selected. For PC hardware, FreeBSD should use the BIOS (it can, now: the boot loader does, with the caveat that old style keyboards can be used, but are not autodetected properly by some BIOS; see the serial console notes for the /boot.config "-P" flag in the FreeBSD handbook); for the Alpha and other hardware, it should use the local firmware (obviously). -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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