Re: NetBSD with a gaming keyboard

[Christian Baer <christian.baer%informatik.uni-dortmund.de@localhost>]

On Wed, 9 Aug 2017 09:20:29 -0600 (MDT)
Swift Griggs <swiftgriggs%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:

Greetings, Programs! ;-)

>> ZFS seemed like the better (and easier) solution for me at the
>> time.  
> ZFS seems more simple to me, too. However, RAIDframe is stable and
> usable, too.

I never doubted the RAIDframe for a minute. :-) I am sure it's stable
an usable. However, setting it up would have been quite a hassle
because I wanted the data on the volume to be encrypted, without
sacrificing the whole point of the RAID (like being able to replace a
single broken drive). Note on this: I have built several computers in
my life with four or five HDs in them, only to see one of the HDs go
bad within 6-9 months, while the others all lasted well past their
warranty expiration dates. You might say, I have a slight bias here. :-)

Doing this with ZFS on FreeBSD was relatively trivial: partition the
drives (in my case, GPT, one partition per drive), create a
cryptographic device (.eli) on each partition and then create a zpool
across all .eli devices. Replacing a drive would be trivial too.

I'm not sure exactly, why I didn't like the RAIDframe for doing this.
If memory serves me, I believe that the RAIDframe would only work on
physical devices and not atop cgds. I would have had to
create the RAID volume and create the cgd on top of that, which could
potentially leave a mess.

Please take this with a couple of grains of salt - more like a
tablespoon. :-) It's a while back and it's possible that my memory is
really lacking.

>> For years I had an IBM Model-M, which I loved and never wanted to
>> give up. An new computer forced me to give it up though because the
>> new MoBo doesn't have a PS/2 port. :-/  
> Use a USB to PS/2 converter dongle. They are cheap and available all
> over the place. They also usually function as PS/2 repeater, so you
> can plug and unplug the thing at will or use it on a PS/2 KVM.

Noone could tell me where to get one that worked. There are lots of
converters for PS/2 to USB and they work fine with mice and simple
keyboards. The Model M seems to need too much juice to work. I bought
and tried several of these things but never found one that made my
Model M power up.
 
> I'm a keyboard nut and I have multiple IBM models, including the M.

Which one is your personal preference?
 
>> A message I get while booting up is: ukbd1: attach failed, too
>> many modifier keys  
> Whoa. That's a new one on me. Usually you can use usbhidctl and 
> usbhidaction to program those keys (though I've had problems with 
> usbhidaction lately). Still, at worst, the keyboards mostly still
> work.

It was new to me too. Ok, I never tried a USB-keyboard with NetBSD
before. The last time I went with the Model M. :-)
 
> If it were me I'd hunt down that message in the kernel code and try
> to find out what the error condition was when it's thrown. Also, what 
> prevents you from running it in BIOS mode? I find UEFI annoying even
> if it is "the future". Does it give you some advantage?

This *is* the way, I am currently using the keyboard. However, in BIOS
mode, all additional keys (like media, windows, menu) as well as the
volume wheel are disabled. I haven't tried if the German special
characters (umlaute) work in this mode, but I wouldn't be surprised if
they didn't.

Unfortunately, I am not really into kernel hacking. I've always wanted
to do something like this, but I have never really gotten down to it.
Well, not much anyways. I have changed code in the Linux kernel
before to get certain hardware to work properly, but I know too little
about the NetBSD kernel to consider me changing kernel code to be a
good idea.

> Thanks,

No problem! But why! I should be thanking you for taking the time:
Thank you!

Regards,
Chris