[techtalk] weird laptop problem

[Linda Walsh]

	I suppose it is possible that the keyboard would use the USB
hardware internally, but I've not heard of such a thing with a laptop.
Even so, USB does work for keyboards, but it also works slowly.  I
had to use it when bringing up an SGI Visual Workstation (pain) that
had a USB keyboard with a 
PS/2 mouse that connected to the keyboard (later
this was dropped and replaced with a standard USB mouse).  When I did
get it running, the keyboard type rate was noticably slow though I didn't
have it dropping characters -- though it was running a 400 PII.  Mobile
systems generally have lower powered Pentiums, so it may be possible that
is the reason it's dropping since the keyboard rate is so slow to begin
with.

	All that having been said though, I'd try to find out what type
of hardware is driving the keyboard.  Can he boot into DOS?  Guess that
wouldn't really mean anything since there may be a standard keyboard
interface presented through the BIOS.

	BTW, if you do have a USB keyboard, the documentation for
that is in /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb -- various README's.

	If it is a standard keyboard, then something is just plain
weird (duh!).  Should we assume DOS/Windows both work?  Despite
people's dislike of that OS -- I find it pretty useful to determine
if something is a hardware problem or software -- if it works under
Windows but not Linux, it's likely a software problem.

	Good luck!
-linda


 
> Kelly Lynn Martin <kelly at poverty.bloomington.in.us> wrote:
> 
> > Any ideas?  I'm going to try 2.2.current and 2.3.latest once I can con
> > him into bringing it over to my house.

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