Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 13 Aug 2001 02:23:45 -0700
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        current@FreeBSD.org, Sean Kelly <smkelly@zombie.org>, Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp>, Matt Dillon <dillon@earth.backplane.com>, Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.org>, Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com>
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD's aggressive keyboard probe/attach
Message-ID:  <3B779CA1.F06B06FE@mindspring.com>
References:  <XFMail.010812172532.jhb@FreeBSD.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
John Baldwin wrote:
> > My suggestion for a probe in this case would be to set up
> > a different handler for the reset signal, and then ask the
> > keyboard to send the reset signal.  If it does, then there
> > is a keyboard present.
> 
> Yeah, and resetting the controller works fine on machines that don't
> have keyboards, so it returns false positives.

I don't *want* the controller reset: that's what makes the
LEDs flash and screw up the KVM's.

> > More ideally, the FreeBSD box would detect whether or not
> > the video card had been disabled, and use _that_ to decide
> > whether or not to use a keyboard.  It would become the job
> > of the video driver -- be it a regular driver, or be it an
> > LCD driver -- to make the distinction.
> 
> This might be practical except that lots of motherboards ship with
> built-in video these days.

I think that disabling this in AMI BIOS, at least, will result
in the carry flag being set to indicate INT 10 call failures.


> What dance?  Works great for me.  If SRM uses serial console, so
> does FreeBSD.  If SRM uses vidconsole, so does FreeBSD.  In fact,
> this is the _only_ way it can work on the Alpha since SRM just
> gives you one console device handle and one boot device handle.
> 
> Have you actually used an Alpha before? :-P

Yes, I've used a Miata and a Multia with FreeBSD, and several
others with DEC UNIX, and had a PC164 at one time.

Surprisingly, setting "vidconsole" in the SRM didn't make
my TGA work in FreeBSD.  8-p.

-- Terry

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3B779CA1.F06B06FE>