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> From Sindi:

I have a computer with dead PS/2 keyboard port (PS/2 mouse works okay) 
that also came with dead CPU.  I have been trying to use it with USB 
keyboard (three of them, one with bad F keys, one known good).
I thought it was the keyboard but eventually they all crashed (online).

CAPSLOCK key generates an error message about keyboard timeout no AT 
keyboard present.  Enter brings back the prompt.

I also get a timeout (not reparable) when I am online with a Lucent modem 
(IRQ 5) typing email.  Freezes, cannot reboot, must power off.

Another crash:
insmod usbcore
insmod uhci or usb-uhci - messages about IRQ10 (twice) then IRQ5 and then 
a crash.

BIOS setup shows that there are four USB controllers using shared IRQs. 
Three of them are IRQ10 (numbers 1 2 and 4) and one (number 3) is IRQ5.  I 
can disable the IRQ5 in BIOS but linux ignores BIOS.  Is there a way to 
tell it to disable the USB controller that is IRQ 5?

I can change the IRQ setting in BIOS for that USB controller, but it is 
lockstepped with the modem IRQ - 5, 10, 11 for both.

I tried the good keyboard in another computer with USB keyboard support 
enabled in BIOS and it works in DOS and not in linux - how do I fix this? 
DFI computer, circa 2000. Can I use loadlin with some parameter to tell it 
to pay attention to BIOS settings?

We have another computer which gives error message when I try to insert 
uhci or usb-uhci but is working fine with ehci-hcd (USB 2.0).  So I tried 
that fix here and it complained about "Port 7 over-current charge" for 
device 00:1d.7 which has IRQ10 and mentioned nothing about IRQ5, leading 
me to believe that one of the three USB 1 controllers uses IRQ5, same as 
the lucent linmodem.  I was getting the keyboard timeout problems while 
online even without loading any USB modules though.

Our phone line here is so noisy that our 1997 external hardware modems and 
even the later internal ones need to be run at 33K or will disconnect (and 
also can't be used for streaming audio) so I am stuck with IRQ5 for the 
PCI linmodem.  The crash of usb-uhci or uhci occurs even if I have not 
loaded modem modules lt_modem and lt_serial, so changing their IRQ is 
unlikely to help.  I tried insmod lt_serial irq=7 and it was not accepted.

And I think I was getting the keyboard timeouts and crashes even without 
being online (not sure).  I could try removing the modem to see if this 
fixes the problem.

I seem to have eliminated the problem somehow by loading the USB 2.0 
driver, even though I was getting this problem with no USB driver loaded.

Inserting usb keyboard support on this computer is irrelevant - it boots 
and works with or without it.  On the other (DFI) it probably needs to be 
compiled into the kernel.

This is my 2.4.31 kernel but the BL3 kernels crashed too.
I found online discussions of a kernel bug in 2.4.21 or earlier 2.4.

Does the 'big' 2.2.26 kernel have built-in USB keyboard support?
I don't see anything there about USB.
It would be helpful for computers with broken PS/2 keyboard port.  Maybe 
the newer ones with only USB would work anyway.

This is the first time I have gotten past the first few sentences of an 
email without a keyboard timeout.  (I still get the message if I hit Caps 
Lock but it does not cause problems).

Older computers do not have USB 2 so this fix won't work (assuming it did 
work).

Sindi
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org