Dropped USB keyboard events

[Chris Jones]

Hi folks--

I recently installed my first FreeBSD workstation after many years with 
NetBSD exclusively. Overall, I'm happy; but I'm seeing one particularly 
irritating bug.

At seemingly random intervals, the computer seems to stop listening for 
keyboard events for as long as a second at a time. Though I'm no speed 
demon at the keyboard, this can mean a few keystrokes that go missing 
before the computer catches up with me. Sometimes when it catches up, it 
will get a key which I pressed during the hiatus; and sometimes it will 
duplicate the last key I pressed before it stopped paying attention.

I've tried swapping to a different USB keyboard. I've tried plugging the 
keyboard in directly to the USB port, instead of via hubs. I've tried 
console mode instead of X. In all cases, the strange behavior is still 
present.

I'm using FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE on a Dell Latitude D620 laptop. Here are 
the many lines of USB-relevant output from dmesg:

uhci0: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> port 0xbf80-0xbf9f irq 20 at 
device 29.0
on pci0
uhci0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
usb0: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci1: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> port 0xbf60-0xbf7f irq 21 at 
device 29.1
on pci0
uhci1: [GIANT-LOCKED]
usb1: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> on uhci1
usb1: USB revision 1.0
uhub1: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci2: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> port 0xbf40-0xbf5f irq 22 at 
device 29.2
on pci0
uhci2: [GIANT-LOCKED]
usb2: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> on uhci2
usb2: USB revision 1.0
uhub2: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci3: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> port 0xbf20-0xbf3f irq 23 at 
device 29.3
on pci0
uhci3: [GIANT-LOCKED]
usb3: <UHCI (generic) USB controller> on uhci3
usb3: USB revision 1.0
uhub3: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub3: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
ehci0: <Intel 82801GB/R (ICH7) USB 2.0 controller> mem 
0xffa80000-0xffa803ff irq
 20 at device 29.7 on pci0
ehci0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
usb4: EHCI version 1.0
usb4: companion controllers, 2 ports each: usb0 usb1 usb2 usb3
usb4: <Intel 82801GB/R (ICH7) USB 2.0 controller> on ehci0
usb4: USB revision 2.0
uhub4: Intel EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub4: 8 ports with 8 removable, self powered
uhub5: vendor 0x413c product 0x0058, class 9/0, rev 2.00/0.00, addr 2
uhub5: multiple transaction translators
uhub5: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
uhub6: vendor 0x0424 product 0x2504, class 9/0, rev 2.00/0.01, addr 3
uhub6: multiple transaction translators
uhub6: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
uhub7: vendor 0x0424 product 0x2504, class 9/0, rev 2.00/0.01, addr 4
uhub7: multiple transaction translators
uhub7: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
ums0: Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM), rev 
1.10/3.00, add
r 5, iclass 3/1
ums0: 3 buttons and Z dir.
uhub8: Dell Dell USB Keyboard Hub, class 9/0, rev 1.10/2.00, addr 6
uhub8: 3 ports with 2 removable, bus powered
ukbd0: Dell Dell USB Keyboard, rev 1.10/2.00, addr 7, iclass 3/1
kbd2 at ukbd0
uhid0: Dell Dell USB Keyboard, rev 1.10/2.00, addr 7, iclass 3/1
...
uhub9: vendor 0x413c product 0xa005, class 9/0, rev 2.00/50.18, addr 2
uhub9: 4 ports with 0 removable, self powered
uhub10: vendor 0x0b97 product 0x7761, class 9/0, rev 1.10/1.10, addr 3
uhub10: 3 ports with 2 removable, bus powered
ugen0: O2 O2Micro CCID SC Reader, rev 1.10/1.10, addr 4

I'd appreciate any advice on getting my lost keystrokes back.

Chris

-- 
Chris Jones               chris at cjones.org                www.cjones.org
    PGP ID 5AFDD40A