kudzu "Keep existing configuration" does not act as advertised

[Jonathan Berry]

On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:13:38 -0600, rado <rado at rivers-bend.com> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > My laptop has a strange behavior where occasionally the keyboard will
> > not work until you press Shift+<some_key>, then all is well.  The
> > problem is, when this happens, kudzu notices that the keyboard is
> > missing and asks me what I want to do about it.  The choices I get are
> > (from memory, IIRC):
> > Ignore it -- keep going and prompt me again if the device seems to be missing
> > Keep existing configuration -- keep going, but don't prompt again if
> > it seems missing
> > Remove the configuration -- forget about the device altogether
> >
> > No matter how many times I tell it to keep the existing configuration
> > and not bother me when it seems missing, I still get the kudzu screen
> > when it happens.  I think this also happens with other devices (it
> > happened with my printer when I unhooked it once), the keyboard
> > problem is just a convenient example.  Has anyone else noticed this
> > kind of behavior?  Is kudzu really supposed to act the way it explains
> > the choices (or at least the way I understand it)?  I checked bugzilla
> > and didn't find anything that seemed exactly like this.  I'll be glad
> > to add a bugzilla entry if people think this is probably a bug.
> > I'm running a fully updated FC3 x86_64.  I would assume that it would
> > be the same on a 32-bit system, but I don't have any way of testing
> > that.
> > $ rpm -q kudzu
> > kudzu-1.1.95-1.x86_64
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jonathan
> 
> Hi Jonathon,
> quick fix for this:
> while it's booting...don't touch it...just let it timeout and let the
> machine boot up. Soon as you are logged in
> get to a terminal and:
> # kudzu
> one kudzu is up, have it reconfigure to satisfy itself.
> all should be fine now.
> after this...go to shutdown
> and, God willing, you won't be bothered w/that again.
> yes, ino, it's not right but this works for me when I add new hardware.
> gl!
> 
> John Rose

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not sure we are on the same page.  Let
me try again.  I currently have devices connected to my system that
Fedora (and thus kudzu) knows about.  The two that I mentioned before
are my keyboard and USB printer.  Sometimes, whether from a quirk with
the keyboard or from moving my laptop, these devices are not connected
at startup.  kudzu doesn't like this and asks me whether or not I want
it to remember that the device should be there.  I tell it to keep the
configuration, but don't tell me again if you find it to be missing. 
However, the next time the device is missing, kudzu insists on telling
me about it.  So, I'm not adding hardware, but temporarily removing
hardware.  I just don't want kudzu to complain about the missing
hardware.  It seems like that is what the "Keep existing
configuration" option is supposed to do, but it doesn't.  If I'm
correct, then this probably needs to be reported as a bug.  Any ideas?

I know I can shut off the kudzu service.  For what all is it
responsible?  Does it have anything to do with hotplug-like stuff?  If
it has anything to do with configuring devices added after start-up
(like USB devices), then I want to keep it, but if it only looks for
changes on start-up, then I don't see the point.  This is treating the
symptoms, though, not the problem.

Jonathan