kbdmux disabled --> no useable keyboard?!

[Luis P. Mendes]

On 2016.02.18 01:10:23 +0100, Polytropon wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 16:44:14 +0000, Luis P. Mendes wrote:
> > (Due to change of hardware and OS I lost the original messages, but
> > will paste the context)
> > 
> > On 2015.11.25 Polytropon wrote:
> > > On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 23:23:56 +0000, Luis P. Mendes wrote:
> > > >   Hi,
> > > >
> > > >   I'm setting up a multiseat workstation, where two users, with two
> > > >   monitors, two keyboards, two mice and two X sessions can be
> > > >   connected to the same computer at the same time.
> > > >
> > > >   For this to happen, one of the things that is necessary to do is to
> > > >   disable kbdmux in order for the two keyboards to be considered
> > > >   independent.
> > > >
> > > >   In the past, I've accomplished this with syscon, which had other
> > > >   problems.  But now with vt, when I disable kbdmux either on
> > > >   /boot/device.hints or in /boot/loader.conf with:
> > > >     hint.kbdmux.0.disabled="1"
> > > >
> > > >   No keys are recognized by the OS, although dmesg seems to know about
> > > >   the existence of the USB keyboard.
> > >
> > > You need to manually transfer the control of one keyboard to the
> > > other - from the "active" to the "inactive" one (to become the
> > > "active" one). Use the kbdcontrol program to do this, "man kbdcontrol"
> > > has more information about the -k option.
> > >
> > > This of course only works when kbdmux is disabled.
> > 
> > Only now, could I return to this project.
> > 
> > The steps I've taken:
> > 1. Have an USB keyboard attached to the motherboard.  No serial keyboard used.
> 
> The AT keyboard isn't a typical serial keyboard. A Sun keyboard is. ;-)

Ok, always learning :-) 


> > 2. In /boot/loader.conf, have these lines added:
> >     ukbd_load="YES"
> >     hint.kbdmux.0.disabled="1"
> >     hint.atkbd.0.disabled="1"
> >     hint.atkbdc.0.disabled="1"
> 
> I don't know if disabling the AT keyboard controller is useful here.
> If no keyboard is attached, the device will stay present. But if an
> USB keyboard is being used anyway, this should not matter.

Well, just in case, I removed the two *atk* lines from
/boot/loader.conf.  The USB keyboard is still not useable.

> > 3. In /etc/rc.conf.local:
> >     kbdcontrol -k /dev/ukbd0 < /dev/console
> 
> That should go to /etc/rc.local. Note that /etc/rc.conf.local is a
> configuration file (in the style of /etc/rc.conf) that's being sourced
> additionally; see "man rc" and "man rc.conf" for details.

I've read it before and from what I understand /etc/rc.conf.local is
meant for local configurations, instead of global configurations that
should be placed in /etc/rc.conf.  Could see no problem in placing the
above line in /etc/rc.conf.local, but moved it to /etc/rc.conf anyway.


> > 4. In /var/log/messages, there are these lines:
> >     kernel: ukbd0: <USB Keyboard> on usbus0
> >     kernel: kbd0 at ukbd0
> > 
> > 5. # ll /dev/uk*
> >      crw-------  1 root  wheel  0x7f 15 Fev 22:39 /dev/ukbd0
> > 
> > 6. # ls -l /dev/kb*
> >      lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  5 15 Fev 22:39 /dev/kbd0 -> ukbd0
> 
> For comparison: With an AT and a USB keyboard both operational,
> the following results will be present:
> 
> % ll /dev/*kbd*
> crw-------  1 root  wheel    0,  55 2016-02-17 19:30:58 /dev/atkbd0
> lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel         6 2016-02-17 19:30:58 /dev/kbd0@ -> atkbd0
> lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel         7 2016-02-17 19:30:58 /dev/kbd1@ -> kbdmux0
> lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel         5 2016-02-17 19:31:10 /dev/kbd2@ -> ukbd0
> crw-------  1 root  wheel    0,  10 2016-02-17 19:30:58 /dev/kbdmux0
> crw-------  1 root  wheel    0, 150 2016-02-17 19:31:10 /dev/ukbd0
> 
> In this case, kbdmux is active. If it was not, the both keyboards
> should be identified as kbd0 (atkbd0) and kbd1 (ukbd0).

Mine (after commenting the two atk lines in /boot/loader.conf): 
# ll /dev/*kbd*
crw-------  1 root  wheel  0x34 18 Fev 14:34 /dev/atkbd0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     6 18 Fev 14:34 /dev/kbd0@ -> atkbd0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     5 18 Fev 14:34 /dev/kbd1@ -> ukbd0
crw-------  1 root  wheel  0x81 18 Fev 14:34 /dev/ukbd0



> As you can see from your kernel message, the device has been picked
> up and recognized correctly, and the required device links have been
> established.

Got some more information from /var/log/messages:
# egrep -i -e 'kbd|keyb' messages
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (kbdmux,
0xffffffff805d4070, 0) error 6
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)>
at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> irq 1 on atkbdc0
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: kbd0 at atkbd0
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: ukbd0: <USB Keyboard> on usbus0
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: kbd1 at ukbd0
Feb 18 14:34:58 leao kernel: uhid0: <USB Keyboard> on usbus0

It seems there's an error 6 loading kbdmux...
My FreeBSD version is
# uname -a
FreeBSD leao 10.3-BETA1 FreeBSD 10.3-BETA1 #0 r295321: Fri Feb  5
17:02:27 WET 2016 


> > But I can't type anything in the (virtual) console.  I'm not
> > considering X yet.
> 
> And you are _totally sure_ the keyboard works?
Completely sure, when these setting are not in place, I can use the
keyboard.  And with the settings, I can type my GELI password on boot
and choose from the boot menu.


> > I don't understand what exactly is meant as example in the manual of
> > kbdcontrol, so cannot find what is wrong with this.
> > Would appreciate some help on this.
> 
> You have been using the correct command for switching to a specific
> keyboard (as quoted above).

This is the only thing keeping me from using my workstation the way I
need.  I hope there's some fix to this.
Thanks for the ongoing help Polytropon!  Hope that you or somebody
else can point me to the right correction.


Luis