Reward for fixing keyboard support in FreeBSD, apply within

[Mathew Kanner]

On Dec 07, Blaz Zupan wrote:
[ ... snip ...] 

> > 	You could stick a kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd2 in rc.local or
> > something similiar.  Or you could try (warning, wild guess) the
> > following in the boot loader
> >
> > 	set hint.sc.2.at=isa
> > 	set hint.sc.2.flags=0x200
> 
> Sure, I'm using the kbdcontrol hack right now. But that's hardly a solution. I
> want to have FreeBSD fixed so that dirty workarounds like this are not needed.
> To even install FreeBSD on this box, you need to jump through hoops:
> 
> - create a customized boot floppy without USB support
> - boot the customized floppy (slow)
> - install through the network
> - alternatively, setup a PXE boot with a custom kernel - complicated
> 
> After installation you need to remotely login as your keyboard again won't
> work because a GENERIC kernel with USB will be installed. Then you add
> kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd2 to your startup files.
> 
> All this is extremely clumsy. What if FreeBSD crashes and you land in single
> user mode? You're screwed, because /etc/rc.local doesn't run. So you need to
> put it into your shells startup file. Clumsy. Errorprone.
> 
> So - I want this fixed once and for all. I'm sure there already are and there
> will be more hardware like this and if FreeBSD wants to be a server operating
> system, it needs to support new hardware, not have more clumsy workarounds.

	I sense you have strong feelings about this :)

	The way I see it, FreeBSD needs serious hacking to have
multiple concurrent keyboards support without serious hacking.  The
only other option is to have a flag to indicate which keyboard to use.
If your keyboard works before the kernel is active (eg, to boot
loader), then please try my second suggestion above.

	Good luck.
	--Mat

-- 
	If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.
			- Don Knuth