usb keyboard aargh!

[Claude Jones]

On Sunday August 20 2006 8:33 am, Tom Horsley wrote:
> The motherboard BIOS never seems to have a problem seeing the
> keyboard via the hub so something about the linux usb
> bootstrapping must have some kind of timing problem.
> Grrr....

My day job is to manage about 50 Windows machines in a software company. Don't 
think that it's a Linux-only problem. I've wasted  a lot of time on this 
particular problem. There's not much rhyme or reason to it - sometimes USB 
works, and sometimes it doesn't, in many different scenarios, not just the 
one you're describing. I've gone through many different theories, but I don't 
have a definitive answer - the protocol is imperfect, the manufacturers have 
imperfectly implemented it - those are the two I tend to suspect now. If the 
powered hub didn't fix it, I'd say you're going to have to live with it, or 
go with a PS2 solution. I keep several PS2 keyboards around our facility for 
this very reason. Things are improving, and USB has gotten a lot better, but 
I still encounter the occasional problem on new equipment. 

That's been my experience - I hope someone comes up with a definitive solution 
and proves me wrong.
-- 
Claude Jones
Brunswick, MD, USA