unresponsive keyboard input without root filesystem

[Brook Milligan <brook%nmsu.edu@localhost>]

Today I was installing netbsd-7 (from the 201503230020Z daily build) and ran into a situation in which the keyboard was not responsive.  Specifically, during one of the boots the OS could not find the root device as the result of a misconfiguration.  Consequently, the kernel reported this and prompted for a new choice.  At this point, the kernel did not respond to the keyboard input and so I had to boot a rescue CD and deal with the misconfiguration.  I don't have much experience with problems like this, but my recollection is that previous kernels would have responded to keyboard input under that condition.

Is it possible that the kernel is not initializing the keyboard early enough and so will not accept input until later in the boot process?  If so, is this by design?  Is this a bug that needs attending to?

Cheers,
Brook