some random concerns

[Rick Ace]

jepeway at rastaban.cs.utk.edu (Chris Jepeway) writes:
> consult at osiris.UUCP (Unix Consultation Mailbox (Phil)) writes:
> 		[Re: Sun 3 keyboards]
> >   ...the keyboard seemed to gag all of a sudden,
> >   emitting a very rapid succession of clicks and sending either nothing or a
> >   few completely impossible (as in "located nowhere near where my fingers
> >   were") characters.
> 
> On 3/60's running 3.5, I've heard the keyboard emit keyclicks when I've
> been wailing away on it.  I haven't seen it lose keystrokes, though the
> damn keyboard on the Sun 4 running 4.0 *does* lose characters and beeps
> most annoyingly when it cannot keep up with typeahead in
> just-plain-console mode (I mean when it's not running a window system).
> 

I have seen both problems.  The first is rather rare, and I have not yet
determined what circumstances cause it or how to reproduce it.

The second (losing characters and beeping annoyingly) is easy to
reproduce: you need SunOS 4.0 (I've seen it on both Sun-3 and Sun-4 gear).
Do not use a window system, like Chris said.  Just invoke csh and hit
Return enough to get the cursor to the bottom of the screen.  Then just
hit Return rapid-fire and listen for the music.  The problem appears to be
peculiar to csh, as I've not been able to reproduce it while using
/bin/sh, rlogin, etc.  I reported this to Sun in November and received a
reply in December acknowledging the existence of the problem (Sun Service
Order # 241216).  Nothing else yet.

Rick Ace
Pixar
3240 Kerner Blvd, San Rafael CA 94901
...!{sun,ucbvax}!pixar!rta