USB keyboard and 5.3RC1

[Joshua Lewis]

Ok...

Um. The motherboard physically does not have a PS/2 port. It is an Abit
AT7. It has no legacy devices. No PS/2 No serial, No parallel ports.
Nada.

Would it be possible to install 4.10 and then upgrade to 5.3
(instructions on upgrading an existing system are welcome)?

Are you essentially telling me my only option is to purchase a new
motherboard?

That kind of sucks!



-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Huff [mailto:roberthuff at rcn.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 10:07 PM
To: Joshua Lewis
Subject: USB keyboard and 5.3RC1


Hello:

>  I have been trying to install 5.3 since it went into BETA and now
>  I am trying to install from the RC1 CD. My problem is when the
>  thing is done booting into the systand install screen my USB
>  keyboard is non-responsive. I have tried other keyboards with no
>  luck (I don't have PS/2 ports on this motherboard.)

	Then you're in trouble.
	The short version is this: due to stuff which is over my head,
the kernel can run with _either_ a AT/PS2 keyboard, _or_ a USB
keyboard, but not both.
	For reasons of compatibility with historical hardware (and many
current machines), the decision has been made to default to have the
default kernel use the PS/2 ports.
	This applies to both 4.x and 5.x.
	You're going to need to find a way to add a PS/2 keyboard.  And
you should keep it installed after system installation.  Why?
Because the boot loader - the code that allows you to select
single-user mode so you can fix a crashed system - doesn't
understand USB either.


				Robert Huff
				who also wishes it were possible
				to have a pure USB system.