Interrupt Storm Dell PowerEdge 1850

[Alex Zbyslaw]

This may be getting a bit Off Topic, but I always find it annoying when 
archive thread peter out without any conclusion...

Nicklas B. Westerlund wrote:

>Alex Zbyslaw wrote:
>
>  
>
>>What version of FreeBSD?  AFAIU, FreeBSD only supports one console
>>keyboard, so if you plug in ukbd1 and make it the console, the DRAC on
>>ukbd0 shouldn't work.  I'm sure I tried this and that it didn't work,
>>but I'd be happy to be wrong.  Are you sure that both your DRAC and
>>USB work at the same time?
>>    
>>
>
>
>Alex,
>
>    On those machines we're running releng_5_4.
>But, as I said, I might be wrong. After all, it is quite some time since
>I tried this.
>
>I never tried using both at the same time, but I do know that I set ukbd
>to 1, to be able to use the console. Then, when I was done and put the
>machine into pre-production I used the DRAC. (Again, this is what I
>remember - so I'm not going to argue points before I get a chance to try
>it again).
>
>The question we should ask ourselves though is why anyone would have to
>use a 'normal' console keyboard, when there's the DRAC console.
>  
>
I may have a chance to test this again, sometime, but the machine is 
installed remotely now and I don't know if they have a USB keyboard or 
not :-(  If you made ukdb1 the console from the command line, then this 
would have gone away when the machine was rebooted.

Why would you want to do this?  2 reasons I can think of:

    1) There actually are sometimes staff at the remote location, and 
having a keyboard next to the machine makes it easier to use the console 
at the same time as doing hardware things like inserting CDs.  (Note 
that you can use a local keyboard if you are fiddling with the BIOS, 
since it's just FreeBSD which forces one keyboard).  The same issue 
affects PS/2 keyboards as well as USB ones, btw.

    2) The DRAC keyboard through the Java app is a bit funny.  Below is 
a quick message I wrote (not to this list) summarising my difficulties.  
The lack of a \ is a pain as there is rarely one on-screen to 
cut-and-paste.  # less difficult since it's usually in some file which 
has other comments in it already.

Neither of those *require* you to use a local keyboard, though.

--Alex

> Here is my experienced behaviour using the Java console applet.
>
> Sometimes, when the applet starts you get these key "mappings":
>
> \ -> #
> | -> ~
> ALT` -> |
> # -> f
> ~ -> F
>
> nothing produces \
>
> If you change the mouse acceleration mode you get these instead:
>
> \ -> \
> | -> |
> @ -> "
> " -> @
> # -> f
> ~ -> F
>
> nothing produces #
>
>
> However, BEWARE of changing the mode when in the BIOS, as it seems to 
> make the keyboard stop working.  When in FreeBSD with a mouse, you can 
> copy some text with the white cursor, and that seems to make the 
> keyboard work again.  That option not available in the BIOS.
>
> --Alex
>
> PS No way to paste text as yet.
>
>