Boot problems with 2.6.29.1 - cannot smoothly boot on battery

[Chris Howie <cdhowie@gmail.com>]

Folks:

I've been running 2.6.29.1 for some time and reported an issue to this
mailing list a while ago about the boot process.  I believe I have now
nailed down the one factor that determines whether I see this issue.

The problem arises only when booting or halting my laptop when there
is no power plugged in, e.g. the system is running on battery.
Sometime after init begins starting services I must hold down a key on
the keyboard to convince it to continue booting, otherwise it just
hangs.  If the system is running on AC then it boots fine.  This same
problem repeats itself during the halt process if running on battery.

This also happens when resuming a suspend-to-disk image, after loading
the data from the hard drive, but before control is returned to
userspace.  The keyboard has no effect on this hang, presumably
because the kernel is not listening to the keyboard at this point.
When this happens the only solution is to hold the power button and
boot normally instead.

An issue like this is a serious usability problem for me.  I am
neither a kernel developer nor hacker, my coding skills applying
mostly to userspace applications.  If there is anything you need from
me to help diagnose this problem please let me know.

I am not subscribed so please CC me on replies.

Thanks all for your time,

-- 
Chris Howie
http://www.chrishowie.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Crazycomputers