From owner-freebsd-current Mon Mar 6 16: 2:19 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from hotmail.com (f121.law7.hotmail.com [216.33.237.121]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8862437BD90 for ; Mon, 6 Mar 2000 16:02:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jmd526@hotmail.com) Received: (qmail 53224 invoked by uid 0); 7 Mar 2000 00:02:12 -0000 Message-ID: <20000307000212.53223.qmail@hotmail.com> Received: from 209.220.228.2 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Mon, 06 Mar 2000 16:02:12 PST X-Originating-IP: [209.220.228.2] From: "John Daniels" To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-qa@freebsd.org Subject: FINAL: installation floppies and USB Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 19:02:12 EST Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hi: My installation problem has been solved. For those of you who have not been following "Installation floppies and USB," I have written a short synopsis after my description of the resolution and conclusion. SOLUTION: I discovered that my Acer Aspire (model 6140) has two PS/2 ports (for keyboard and floppy). I purchased a PS/2 mouse and keyboard and I no longer get the "keyboard:no" message (instead it says: keyboard:yes)! (in fact, under W98, my USB keyboard and mouse, and my PS/2 keyboard and mouse all work simultaneously.) DISCUSSION: I have not seen any messages about this problem, since it turned into a BIOS discussion with the recommendation that I change the BIOS parameter "PnP OS" from YES to NO. FYI: Changing this parameter made no difference to the installation before or after I hooked up the PS/2 keyboard and mouse. It may make a difference at some later point. The PS/2 ports are hidden by a two different coverings: 1- a plastic molding that is screwed on and, 2- a plastic sheet that is glued on. No consumer-oriented documentation mentions the PS/2 ports. I only found out about them from: 1- a somewhat confusing email in which it was unclear if the writer had the same model and what the exact location of the ports were, 2- the motherboard specs which happened to be on the Acer Aspire website, which prompted a more through searching of my system. I had previously looked at the Acer website and knew it to have very little information. The Acer site doesn’t even have a search function. I only went back hoping to find if there were any BIOS updates (there were none). Two previous calls to Acer support describing my problems installing a new operation system ended with the response: "we don't support Linux or FreeBSD" -- with no mention of the possibility of using the PS/2 ports. As far as BIOS updates: I finally found that Acer Germany provided them (www.acer.de/support/techinfo/bios.htm) -- and one of these BIOS updates was specifically for “Linux support!” (this might also be needed for FreeBSD but I have not downloaded this because I don’t want to fool with my BIOS unless absolutely necessary.) I called Acer USA again but they had no idea that this site existed or why there was a BIOS update for Linux (even though the technician told me that he ran Linux (at home?)) I came to FreeBSD because I had learned that it “supported” USB but like Linux, USB support must be compiled in after installing the GENERIC kernel/system. I had purchased RedHat (before I found FreeBSD), but when I called RedHat support and described my system (with USB keyboard and mouse), I was told only that “Linux doesn’t support USB.” CONCLUSIONS: 1- “-Dh” at the boot loader’s “boot:” allowed the boot loader to load FreeBSD but when the FreeBSD GENERIC kernel was booted, the system may have been looking for input from the PS/2 port. (which I had no knowledge of!). Somehow NetBSD’s GENERIC kernel recognized my USB keyboard, because: 1- it could use the same mechanism as the boot loader (whatever that may be), 2- it has a better ability for finding devices dynamically (at least for keyboards), or 3- it supports USB. 2-Acer needs to provide better documentation. 3-Major Linux vendors, like RedHat, which have aspirations for Linux as a consumer "desktop" OS should have already come across this problem with Acer machines (along with quirkiness of other machines/manufacturers). I would have also liked to see a willingness on their part to find a solution, instead of just spouting policy. There was no willingness from RH or SuSE to provide a boot disk with a recompiled kernel (SuSE sponsored the backport that enables USB support in Linux’s STABLE kernel) 4- Although I was disappointed that FreeBSD did not support USB “out-of-the-box,” I did not expect a lot of support (like I had as a paying customer of RedHat’s). NetBSD’s installation floppy did work and that was my backup but I was encouraged to continue looking into my USB problem because I found that FreeBSD developers were willing to be helpful. This is especially true of John Barton, who first volunteered to help, but also of John Reynolds who elevated my problem to -current and Nick Hibma who responded quickly and cogently. 5- Perhaps I am naïve, but stating that an OS “supports” a device is confusing when that “support” has to be compiled in. There should be a sharper distinction between support out-of-the-box (in GENERIC) and otherwise. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that USB seems so basic. For example, almost any PC will “support” a hard disk and a printer but most people would expect a hard disk to come with the machine. In fact, hardware.txt states: “The FreeBSD kernel on the install floppy contains drivers for every piece of hardware that could conceivably be used to install the rest of the system with.” SYNOPSIS OF PROBLEM: When I booted the installation floopy I got the message: “keyboard: no” The floppy disk drive continued to work, then stopped. I was later told that my output (input,too?) was being redirected. In the file trouble.txt, I found a reference to this problem which said that when the “keyboard:no” message appears, the user should hit the spacebar then type “-Dh” at the “boot:” prompt. This worked -- I could then proceed with the installation until the FreeBSD kernel was booted and a screen appeared asking me if to choose a configuration type: none, full screen, or command line (CLI). Unfortunately, at this point my keyboard was not working. I believe that is because I have a USB keyboard but Nick Hibma has said that they have USB systems that could boot the installation disks without any keyboard problems. Thus, BIOS settings and IRQ settings became an issue: could there be conflicts or settings that needed to be changed? No BIOS setting changes made any difference and I came across the PS/2 ports while I was trying to learn more about BIOS for my system. John ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message