PS/2 peripherals

[Gareth Howlett]

Gareth Howlett wrote:
>
>
> We've got a number of computers sitting around the office that don't
> detect PS/2 peripherals when plugged-in.  If they were plugged-in
during
> boot they work just fine, but if they were plugged-in after boot they
don't.
>
> 1)       Anyone here ever heard of this before?
>
> 2)       Is there anything I can do about it (force a kernel
re-detect?)
>
>
>
> I've checked the BIOS settings and I'm using FC4 (2.6.12-1.1447).
Dmesg
> and /var/log/messages don't display anything relevant (in the
after-boot
> case).
>
First of all, most (all) PS/2 devices are not designed to be
hotplugged. Depending on the BIOS, it may disable the PS/2 mouse
connection if there is not a mouse plugged in at boot. There may be
a BIOS setting for this. But if I remember correctly, this is a
choice of off or auto.

Depending on your hardware, you may also be running the risk of
destroying the PS/2 device or motherboard circuitry.

Mikkel
-- 

Its likely that you have blown the ps2 ports by hot plugging. The bios
will 
only report whats plugged into them durring the post test, so if you
plug in 
a mouse or key board after the post test has finished the biosdoes not
see 
them 

-- 


They aren't blown... just unresponsive until after reboot.  I had
imagined it was much like Mikkel said but I wanted to confirm my
suspicions.  It's really too bad there isn't a way to ask BIOS to search
again.  Anyway, no big deal - I figure we've got two options...

- Live with it.

- Find a PS/2 adapter which always shows a peripheral connected (I know
they exist for monitor connections).

And a note for next time - make sure we have enough PS/2 ports and base
our KVM on it as well.

- Gareth