Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 16:17:00 -0700 From: "Matt Simerson" <mpsimerson@hostpro.com> To: "'freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: FreeBSD doesn't recognize keyboard unless is plugged in at boot t ime. Message-ID: <8D18712B2604D411A6BB009027F644980DD87C@0SEA01EXSRV1>
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OK, one of my biggest pet peeves of late is that unless you have the PS/2 keyboard plugged in at boot time, it's not recognized. In a world of workstations where every machine has a keyboard, this would never really be a problem but in our data center, where we have rows of racks full of machines without keyboards, this is quite the annoyance. If a machine has problems, the NOC monkeys wheel over a KVM cart, plug it in, and when the machines doesn't respond to keyboard activity, assume it's locked up and power cycle it. We've got the NOC monkeys trained NOT to do that now (without trying a few other things) but it's still a real bugger when you want to get onto a box via console. You have to go plug in a KVM, reboot the machine, and then you can get console access. Long ago, a bright SUNny OS has this same problem and they found some clever workaround. I know that my BSDI systems don't suffer from this affliction either. Is there already a kernel option for this? Is there some other workaround? On a few machines I've build PS/2 connectors with a resistor that I plug in so that FreeBSD _thinks_ there is a keyboard there at boot time. Then we just unplug the PS/2 plug, plug in a keyboard, and all is happy. Oddly enough, this behavior is also manifested when said server is plugged into a Belkin OmniCube KVM switch unless the KVM is set to that machine. This too is highly annoying because I have to sit and watch a computer boot if I want to have console access to it. I can't be the only one having this problem can I? Matt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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