From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Fri Mar 25 16:20:12 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BC2CADDC62 for ; Fri, 25 Mar 2016 16:20:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from 1364@allunix.ru) Received: from ns1.allunix.ru (mail.allunix.ru [85.118.230.76]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E9CE51100 for ; Fri, 25 Mar 2016 16:20:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from 1364@allunix.ru) Received: from gamer ([10.10.52.20]) by ns1.allunix.ru (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id u2PFwPVq090959 for ; Fri, 25 Mar 2016 21:58:26 +0600 (NOVT) (envelope-from 1364@allunix.ru) X-AntiVirus: Checked by Dr.Web [version: 11.0.4.01150, engine: 11.0.1.10200, virus records: 6975621, updated: 25.03.2016] To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Dmitry Bachilo <1364@allunix.ru> Subject: How can FreeBSD work with keyboard on a dead southbridge where other systems fail? Message-ID: <56F56118.2070205@allunix.ru> Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2016 22:02:32 +0600 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.7.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.21 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2016 16:20:12 -0000 So, here is the story: I have a laptop Acer Aspire 5100, which has a dead southbridge. In any operating system it predictibly results in non-working audio, usb, keyboard and touchpad. I tried Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux and FreeDOS. They all work ok on it except this minor stuff. I also obvioulsy can't access BIOS since keyboard is dead. And if I install FreeBSD on it ofcouse I cant skip that autoboot delay with the boot menu. But if system boots - the keyboards suddenly works like a charm, and that makes my laptop totally usable and fine (for example to set up ethrenet switches using cardbus serial adapter). That's a miracle! Or is it? So the question is: what makes FreeBSD so different? How does it work with the keyboard and why no other OS uses this method then? P.S. I even made the video about this situation and it has an image of this laptop's motherboard if needed. Here it is: https://youtu.be/JBt_fbvpGww