Keyboard and PS/2 mouse lockups

Keyboard and PS/2 mouse lockups

[Michael Ben-Gershon]

I know this is not new, but I feel that my input is worth
noting.

I recently upgraded my hardware from a Tyan board with a PII 333
to an ASUS P4T with a P4 1.5G.

Running either kernel 2.2.19 or 2.4.6, 2.4.7, 2.4.8, 2.4.9, I get
a serious conflict between the PS/2 mouse and the keyboard. If the
mouse is plugged into the machine and generates any mouse event (by
moving it or clicking) the keyboard is completely locked up. I am
using a KVM (=kbd-video-mouse) splitter box, and the strange thing
is that the box will respond to a 'double scroll lock' keypress to
switch from one machine to the next, but if the kbd is locked up by
the above trouble it will not respond at all, and the manual switching
button must be used. This is very strange, as the 'double scroll lock'
action works even if the currently selected machine is switched off!

I get the lockup whether or not gpm is running, and even if the
kernel is built with no PS/2 mouse support. If the mouse is removed
before the trouble is triggered, all is OK.

All of the above is using the console. I can run X from a remote
machine - this is what I have usually done anyway, for a number
of local reasons. I can also telnet into the machine. But the
console keyboard is totally, utterly dead.

For what it is worth, the problem does not occur if the machine
is booted up into DOS rather than linux, so it cannot be purely
a hardware problem, but must be s combined hardware/linux kernel
problem.

Any ideas?

Michael Ben-Gershon
mybg@netvision.net.il

Re: Keyboard and PS/2 mouse lockups

[Michael Ben-Gershon]

Michael Ben-Gershon wrote:
> 
> I know this is not new, but I feel that my input is worth
> noting.
> 
> I recently upgraded my hardware from a Tyan board with a PII 333
> to an ASUS P4T with a P4 1.5G.
> 
> Running either kernel 2.2.19 or 2.4.6, 2.4.7, 2.4.8, 2.4.9, I get
> a serious conflict between the PS/2 mouse and the keyboard. If the
> mouse is plugged into the machine and generates any mouse event (by
> moving it or clicking) the keyboard is completely locked up. I am
> using a KVM (=kbd-video-mouse) splitter box, and the strange thing
> is that the box will respond to a 'double scroll lock' keypress to
> switch from one machine to the next, but if the kbd is locked up by
> the above trouble it will not respond at all, and the manual switching
> button must be used. This is very strange, as the 'double scroll lock'
> action works even if the currently selected machine is switched off!
> 
> I get the lockup whether or not gpm is running, and even if the
> kernel is built with no PS/2 mouse support. If the mouse is removed
> before the trouble is triggered, all is OK.

That seems to be the problem! If the kernel is compiled without
busmouse support, and with PS/2 mouse support, then the mouse is
recognised and the keyboard does not get locked up.

This is, therefore, a warning to all:

Even if you are configuring a system with no need for a mouse (as
I had been doing until now - a system console for a server, and no
local X-server required) YOU MUST CONFIGURE THE KERNEL WITH THE
PS/2 MOUSE DRIVER (and NOT as a module) or else you are likely
to suffer the consequences!

Michael Ben-Gershon
mybg@netvision.net.il