ISC 2.0.2 and VP/IX Dos Emulation

[Charles Marslett]

In article <525 at loft386.UUCP>, dpi at loft386.UUCP (Doug Ingraham) writes:
.. In article <36515 at ism780c.isc.com>, patrick at scrooge.ism.isc.com (Patrick Curran) writes:
.. > In article <240 at hdchq.UUCP> diamond at hdchq.UUCP (Bill Diamond) writes:
.. > >
.. > >The problem is when users are in VP/ix DOS emulation, whether using a
.. > >particular DOS program or just at the DOS shell, on both the console and
.. > >the SunRiver stations, the keyboard seems to "flip out".  The caps lock
.. > >locks in, and we cannot reset the keyboard.  All keys pressed once this
.. > >keyboard flip-flop occurs generate an equivalent scan code as if the
.. > ><Shift> were pressed along with the single keystroke.
.. > 
.. > Try unplugging the keyboard and then plugging it back in again.
.. > This solves almost all of the "lockup" problems I experience.
.. > 
.. 
.. Don't do this!  Your keyboard and or computer can be damaged
.. by unplugging and re-plugging with the power on.  They were not
.. designed to allow this.  I am surprised that anyone would recommend
.. as crude a solution to any problem as this.

I might add that if the keyboard micro is locked up (the usual situation),
there is only one mechanism to free it (since there is no "RESET" line going
from the computer to the keyboard, and even if there was, that doesn't
always work).  That is to turn of the power to the keyboard.

You could also just turn off the power to the keyboard with the big red switch
(and, by the way, turn off the power to the hard disk and the CPU).

Neither the Unix operating system nor the keyboard were "designed" to be reset
this way; however, some situations come up where we have to do it.  [BTW, if
unplugging the keyboard would cause serious problems, I wouldn't buy that
keyboard -- it's bound to happen by accident often enough.]  Unplugging the
keyboard is quite comparable to turning the machine off (from the keyboard
side), and from the processor's side it looks like a short, funny sequence of
transitions on the input status lines (which could lock up a
poorly written keyboard handler -- but not much else.

.. . . .  The keyboard software could be robust.  I am
.. guessing that contacting the correct people at SunRiver and Interactive
.. would get this cleared up quickly.  If others have this kind of
.. problem, then its software.  If you are alone, I would bet its hardware.

Robustness does require the hardware to be equally (or more) robust.

.. -- 
.. Doug Ingraham (SysAdmin)
.. Lofty Pursuits (Public Access for Rapid City SD USA)
.. uunet!loft386!dpi

Charles Marslett
chasm at attctc.dallas.tx.us