freebsd stable - Jul 2004 - Unable to use a PS/2 keyboard after a boot without it.

Hello..

I run a few FreeBSD machines at home (both 4.10 and 5.2.1) and if I boot them up
*without* having the PS/2 keyboard connected, I can't connect it later on..
My servers
usually runs without screen and keyboard, power and network cable is the only
thing
needed. :) But when I need to change something (like, take them down to
single-user-mode), then I need to reconnect the keyboard, reboot the machine and
THEN I
can use the keyboard..

I use to run Linux before and it seems like Linux handle that pretty well,
therefore I
doubt it's a BIOS settings or so.. Is it possible to make FreeBSD work the
same way to
always assume there's keyboard connected so I can connect it whenever I need
to without
(re)booting with it connected?


Regards,
Jesper Wallin

On Sun, Aug 01, 2004 at 01:51:38AM +0200, Jesper Wallin
wrote:
> Hello..
> 
> I run a few FreeBSD machines at home (both 4.10 and 5.2.1) and if I boot
them up
> *without* having the PS/2 keyboard connected, I can't connect it later
on.. My servers
> usually runs without screen and keyboard, power and network cable is the
only thing
> needed. :) But when I need to change something (like, take them down to
> single-user-mode), then I need to reconnect the keyboard, reboot the
machine and THEN I
> can use the keyboard..
> 
> I use to run Linux before and it seems like Linux handle that pretty well,
therefore I
> doubt it's a BIOS settings or so.. Is it possible to make FreeBSD work
the same way to
> always assume there's keyboard connected so I can connect it whenever I
need to without
> (re)booting with it connected?
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Jesper Wallin
Understandable, considering PS/2 is not technically hot-swappable...Be careful
doing that, cause I've seen machines stop responding to PS/2 input after a
"bad" swap...I don't know if the on-board keyboard controller gets
fried or
what, but swapping PS/2 peripherals is just something I don't do any more.

As far as why FreeBSD doesn't recognize PS/2 hardware after it's
hot-plugged,
I can't help you there. You might consider looking at the flags for the
drivers that work with the keyboard.

Josh
-- 
Josh Tolbert
hemi@puresimplicity.net  ||  http://www.puresimplicity.net/~hemi/

If your sysadmin's not being fascist, you're paying him too much.
   --Sam Greenfield

01/08/04 00:51:38, "Jesper Wallin" <jesper@hackunite.net> wrote:
>Hello..
>
>I run a few FreeBSD machines at home (both 4.10 and 5.2.1) and if I boot
them up
>*without* having the PS/2 keyboard connected, I can't connect it later
on.. My servers
>usually runs without screen and keyboard, power and network cable is the
only thing
>needed. :) But when I need to change something (like, take them down to
>single-user-mode), then I need to reconnect the keyboard, reboot the machine
and THEN I
>can use the keyboard..
If the machines are within reach of each other a kvm (keyboard video mouse)
switch works well. You can get a passive switch or a fancy electronic one. The
electronic
one mimics the devices plugged in and allows booting a machine which is not
selected. With the passive one you must select the machine you want to boot. I
have a
passive one and switch between various operating systems and between AT and PS2
type motherboards.

At one place I used to work we booted machines with a keyboard plugged in but
otherwise moved the few keyboards around between running machines according to
need. 

Chris