Subject: USB / wskbd questions/problems...
To: None <current-users@netbsd.org>
From: Mason Loring Bliss <mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us>
List: current-users
Date: 04/10/1999 14:13:55
I hope everyone appreciates how wide-ranging the problems and quirks I'm
experiencing are. :P Anyway...

Is there a trick to getting NetBSD to use a USB keyboard? For kicks, I plugged
my folks' iMac keyboard into my 1.4_ALPHA i386 box. It was seen by the kernel
at startup time:

ukbd0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
ukbd0: Alps Electric M2452, rev 1.00/1.01, addr 3, iclass 3/1
wskbd0 at ukbd0

But it definitely wasn't getting keystrokes through to the anything.

I know the keyboard works, because:

1) I was able to change my BIOS settings with it, and I was able to use it
   to tell the boot prompt to do stuff.
2) It worked on the iMac.

It's just that when NetBSD came up, the keyboard seemingly went away. Now,
FWIW, I've read the bit in the man pages that says that a wsdisplay can't
read from multiple wskbds, and the following *did* show up in my dmesg:

pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60-0x64
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd1 at pckbd0: console keyboard

But, it should be noted that the USB keyboard didn't work even when the
machine was started with the pckbd unplugged. (I didn't snag a dmesg from
when I had the the USB keyboard plugged in but no pckbd - I was in single-
user mode and didn't want to run to the other side of the house to run
dmesg or, in fact, to shut down gracefully from the other box.)

Clues are welcome. I don't *need* to use a USB keyboard. I just think the
idea is pretty neat. I intend to use other USB stuff, but if I can use a
USB keyboard, I might get one. (I'd actually like to get two nice, identical
ones, and use one each on the iMac and my NetBSD box.)

Thanks!

PS:  I *love* the abstraction of wsmouse. I unplug the USB mouse, plug in a
     PS/2 mouse, and it just works in X, no muss, no fuss.

PPS: I'm going to try to hook up a USB scanner to the machine later today.
     If anyone has anecdotal or theoretical information about doing this,
     I'm all ears. I'm not sure whether or not it can be done, but it'll
     be fun to try.

PS3: Does anyone remember offhand when the discussion of hot to handle
     device names and hot plug-in/removal took place? I'd like to go re-
     read that. (Of course, if someone wants to summarise, that works
     too. Either way.)

-- 
Mason Loring Bliss             ((  "In the drowsy dark cave of the mind dreams
mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us  ))  build  their nest  with fragments  dropped
http://acheron.ne.mediaone.net ((   from day's caravan." - Rabindranath Tagore