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- Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 23:34:05 -0700
- From: Marc Merlin <marc_news@merlins.org>
- Cc: linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu, Larry Augustin <lma@valinux.com>
-
- There is an issue with setup.S:
- ! Set the keyboard repeat rate to the max
- mov ax,#0x0305
- xor bx,bx ! clear bx
- int 0x16
-
- Those lines are not really needed but they cause a problem on some (very
- few) systems where every other boot (or so) the keyboard won't be found (and
- has to be plugged/unplugged before it re-appears).
- It happens to affect some of the Pentium Pro systems that VA Linux Systems
- used to sell.
- Larry Augustin (CEO VA) found that removing those three lines fixes the
- problem and VA has been shipping kernels with them disabled for at least two
- years without any adverse effects.
- The patch actually got in the 2.0.31pre series (by David Miller) but got
- dropped/lost when David gave up.
-
- More details from Larry:
-
- ----- Forwarded message from Larry Augustin <lma@valinux.com> -----
- From: Larry Augustin <lma@valinux.com>
-
- Specifically, we had the problem on Intel Venus (VS440FX) Pentium Pro
- systems. I have a feeling the problem could be traced to a Keytronic
- keyboard BIOS bug, but I never tracked it down.
-
- Interesting enough, that was one of the patches david miller had in the code
- base that got dropped when he quit doing 2.0 maintenance releases.
-
- Larry
-