On Sat, 5 May 2001, Alfred Perlstein wrote:
> > > i have never killed a keyboard with un / plugging.
> > > at linux it works.
> > Well, it works, until your keyboard does actually break :)
>
> It can actually fry the entire motherboard. I doubt linux can
> prevent that.
>
> FreeBSD 4.3 allows hotswap again.
Hehe... I've never burned a MB or keyboard in the > 1000 times I've done
it, although I've had to reboot a few because the keyboard controller
didn't wake up properly. :) I've had dead-ish keyboards that won't allow
a machine to boot if plugged in when booting, but work fine if plugged in
afterwards. (I've got a nice rackmount Netframe keyboard/trackball that
does this. What a pain. I'd like to be able to use that keyboard!)
It could be handy sometimes to have a widget to run that would totally
re-initialize the keyboard controller. Most often I'd find this handy to
re-enable a PS/2 mouse after inadvertantly disconnecting it. I hate to
reboot server machines that have been up for hundreds of days because I
can't use the KB or mouse. (Not that I often use a KB or mouse on any
server machines... but it has happened more than once.)
Besides... It's not as bad as hot-swapping ISA cards. When I first got
my Microsoft InPort Bus Mouse (with Windows 286) years and years ago, I
used to often move it between my BBS machine and my development machine
every few minutes when I was building some of the ANSI screens, etc.
Occasionally I had to go to DOS and re-enable the mouse driver, but it
actually worked because the card was so simple. :) Not recommended.
Yes, I am crazy.
Later...... <Dog>
To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
