USB keyboard in FreeBSD 10 amd64 installer

[Dave B]

Subject:        	Re: USB keyboard in FreeBSD 10 amd64 installer

> On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 12:10 PM, Christian Campbell
> <dcamp at alumni.ufl.edu>wrote:
> 

<Snipped>

> 
> One more point to check may be memory chips .
> 
> I have encountered such a case :
> 
> 
> In a computer Windows XP was running successfully .
> When I tried a FreeBSD or Linux , no one of them worked properly (
> they were crashing unexpectedly ) . My opinion was that there were
> incompatibilities between FreeBSD or Linux and its mainboard which was
> a correct expectation .
> 
> Later on , even Windows XP started to crash .
> 
> The reason was a progressive memory chip defect .
> 
> Different operating systems may use different memory parts . One of
> them may fail but others may work .
> 
> In such cases verifying correct functioning of memory chips may be
> useful .
> 
> Even other computer parts may cause such problems because of order of
> using parts or not using all of the parts or using different parts .
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you very much .
> 
> Mehmet Erol Sanliturk
> 
> 

Yep!...   Seen that sort of thing too.

In my case, another XP box that had got stuck trying to do one particular 
update (I forget what it was for.)

Long story short, after trying all the usual stuff, I eventualy booted a 
Memtest86 CD.

After a long time (not the quickest PC, and it had at that time 384Meg of RAM, 
not much even for XP) it failed on one sticky bit, right at the top of memory, but 
only with the very last (most complex) test!...

I isolated which memory stick was the issue by removing one and retesting, 
then swapping and testing again.

On talking with the owner, they accepted my suggestion to max out the RAM 
anyway as it would be cheaper at that time, than trying to replace a single 
256Meg stick.   1G of new ram later, it ran like a new machine!
(And the suspect update applied itself with no error.)


In your USB keyboard case, I'm not saying that memory issues will be the 
cause, just agreeing that it could be a posible cause.

(I didn't know however, that the 64 bit versions of FBSD install disks, startup in 
32 bit mode, that needs documenting somewhere, or on screen as you begin 
the process.)

Memtest86 will boot and run on just about anything with an Intel or AMD CPU, 
32 or 64 bit.   Well worth having a copy in your toolkit.
http://www.memtest.org/

It can often be found on some Linux distro install CD's too, as an option to test 
the system before kicking off the main install, or booting to a live version of the 
OS.

The only downside, on a large ram system, even with a slick CPU, it can still 
take "An age" to complete.   That's the nature of real diagnositcs though.

No affiliation, just another happy user.

Regards to All.

Dave B.