Subject: Re: keyboard doesn't work with current kernel
To: Brian Moore <ziff@eecs.umich.edu>
From: HD Associates <hd@world.std.com>
List: current-users
Date: 03/08/1994 08:12:06
> 
> I had this problem also with the Feb 26 sources.  The solution I found was to
> just keep hiting the Caps Lock key during the probe sequence of the boot.
> Right before the fsck of the disks it probes the keyboard ( the line says
> something like 'impmask 4fe blah blah' or something like that ).  When the
> console is probed first, it disables my keyboard.  Then when it probes the
> keyboard, if I'm hitting a key, the keyboard will come back to life.  I use the
> Caps Lock because I can see the light come back on.  I had this same problem
> with 386BSD 0.1, and this was the 'solution'.  It went away with NetBSD 0.9,
> but came back with the latest sources.  An annoying problem, but not critical.
> I assumed thisproblem was known, but I just joined the group after the
> discussion.  Oh yeah, I have the same exact machine as you, and I was told that
> this is a screwy problem with the AnyKey keyboard.

If you are both talking about the same problem,  namely that you need
console output after keyboard input to have the Gateway keyboard work
when it powers up, then it isn't the AnyKey keyboard.  It is definitely
the motherboard.  I'm using FreeBSD on the that motherboard with a very
old NEC keyboard and it illustrates that problem. A look at
Netbsd-current has me guessing that the second ack byte business that
Charles Hannum put in pccons to solve the "second ack" problem on some
keyboards is breaking on the Micronics.  I say this because I keep
ifdefing out a similar sequence in FreeBSD-current.  One of the Gateway
-current users can try "ifdef HANG_THE_GATWAY" around the "some
keyboards seem.. " logic in pccons probe and report back.

I had high hopes for the problem having been beaten into the ground as
it sounds like an interrupt edge dropped and that was the description
of the latest fix.

-- 
Peter Dufault               Real Time Machine Control and Simulation
HD Associates, Inc.         Voice: 508 433 6936
hd@world.std.com            Fax:   508 433 5267

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