Booting without a keyboard
Phil Snowdon
I am trying to use an old 486 as a server/firewall and I want to run
it without a keyboard or monitor. Problem is that when booting Linux
waits after Loading Linux......... line. Plug in the keyboard and it
continues with the Uncompressing Linux ..........
I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
Phil
Phil
You need to change the bios defaults on your box so that
the post does not halt on errors. If the bios setup
does not offer such an option you are going to have to
put a dummy in the keyboard socket.
This is a common question for UNIX people coming at the
PC through Linux. It is an unfortunate fact that the
default BIOS setup on many boards (especially PII boards!)
is to halt on ALL errors. This makes building a Beowulf
cluster a big headache when the nodes do not have video
cards!
Phil
--
Phil Ehrens <peh...@ligo.caltech.edu>| Fun stuff:
The LIGO Laboratory, MS 18-34 | http://www.ralphmag.org
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Tommy Johnsson
errors. Otherwise it vill complai about the keybord, and alse that no
monitor isnt connected.
--
Tommy
"Most people's favorite way to end a game is by winning."
On Tue, 23 Feb 1999, Phil Snowdon wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am trying to use an old 486 as a server/firewall and I want to run
> it without a keyboard or monitor. Problem is that when booting Linux
> waits after Loading Linux......... line. Plug in the keyboard and it
> continues with the Uncompressing Linux ..........
>
> I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
> rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
>
> Phil
>
> phi...@homemail.com
>
>
Vladimir Florinski
>
> I am trying to use an old 486 as a server/firewall and I want to run
> it without a keyboard or monitor. Problem is that when booting Linux
> waits after Loading Linux......... line. Plug in the keyboard and it
> continues with the Uncompressing Linux ..........
>
> I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
> rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
>
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't keyboard necessary to switch the CPU
into protected mode? The Intel 8042 chip (keyboard controller) has the gate A20
and IIRC it is somehow used to switch from real to protected.
--
Vladimir
M.C. van den Bovenkamp
> > I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
> > rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
> >
>
> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't keyboard necessary to switch the CPU
> into protected mode? The Intel 8042 chip (keyboard controller) has the gate A20
> and IIRC it is somehow used to switch from real to protected.
Well, it isn't; not on my old 486/33 anyways I use as a
dialin/dialout/printer/NTP server and IP masquerader. That runs -and
boots if and when (very rarely) needed- perfectly well without both
monitor and keyboard.
--
Marco van den Bovenkamp.
CIO EMEA Network Design Engineer,
Lucent Technologies Nederland.
Room: HVS BZK 32
Tel.: (+31-35-687)2724
Mail: bove...@lucent.com
Phil Snowdon
> >I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
> >rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
>
> the post does not halt on errors. If the bios setup
> does not offer such an option you are going to have to
> put a dummy in the keyboard socket.
>
All of the bios settings are set to ignore errors, not to wait on "F1"
etc.
The bios post seems quite happy, as does LILO, which loads linux off
hda1. its only after loading and before uncompressing that everything
stops. Are there any boot parameters that would be useful, or would
using an uncompressed kernel help?
Thanks
Michael Creasy
Michael
Alex Yung
: All of the bios settings are set to ignore errors, not to wait on "F1"
: etc.
: The bios post seems quite happy, as does LILO, which loads linux off
: hda1. its only after loading and before uncompressing that everything
: stops. Are there any boot parameters that would be useful, or would
: using an uncompressed kernel help?
Your (maybe) problem has nothing to do with keyboard. My old 20MHz 386
needs 4 minutes to uncompress the Debian default kernel. It would
improve if you use a smaller custom kernel. If I am not mistaken, you
need to give your machine more time not a keyboard.
Shane Hultquist
Is it better to have a hub to hook 2 computers to the linux box, or just extra NICs??
Shane
M.C. van den Bovenkamp wrote:
> Vladimir Florinski wrote:
>
> > > I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
> > > rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
> > >
> >
Colin
>
> Is it better to have a hub to hook 2 computers to the linux box, or just extra NICs??
If you're just hooking up two computers together, all you need is the two
NIC for those two computers and a crossover cable. Once you try and get
three computers on your network, you must use a hub.
--
Reply to "cwv [at] idirect (dot) com"
Rudy Zijlsta
experimental) bridge code in the kernel.
This is working quit well, and because the system is at a location where
keyboard and monitor are quite a nuisance, I am running without both.
Basically an "embedded" system.
Problem: I need the keyboard to boot
-1- bios does not check for keyboard (Yes, I verified)
-2- keyboard is not needed for fast A20 switching (once its up, I unplug
the keyboard, which is a definite irritation, It means it wont boot after a
power failure....)
-3- Linus has mentioned that in the 2.1.1xxx kernels there was a problem
with booting without keyboard, I just can't remember where I read that. It
was solved though in the 2.2.x series kernel.
-4- I am using kernel 2.2.1
-5- What is the configuration option I am missing???
Rudy Zijlstra
ru...@edsons.demon.nl
Shane Hultquist wrote:
> I`m setting up a system right now that will be doing basically what yours
is doing.
extra NICs??
>
>
> M.C. van den Bovenkamp wrote:
>
> > Vladimir Florinski wrote:
> >
> > > > I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
> > > > rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't keyboard necessary to
switch the CPU
> > > into protected mode? The Intel 8042 chip (keyboard controller) has
the gate A20
> > > and IIRC it is somehow used to switch from real to protected.
> >
> > Well, it isn't; not on my old 486/33 anyways I use as a
> > dialin/dialout/printer/NTP server and IP masquerader. That runs -and
> > boots if and when (very rarely) needed- perfectly well without both
> > monitor and keyboard.
> >
> > --
> > Marco van den Bovenkamp.
> >
> > CIO EMEA Network Design Engineer,
> >
> > Lucent Technologies Nederland.
> > Room: HVS BZK 32
> > Tel.: (+31-35-687)2724
> > Mail: bove...@lucent.com
------------------ Posted via SearchLinux ------------------
http://www.searchlinux.com
Phil Snowdon
> Wouldn't it be easier just to leave a cheap keyboard plugged in ?
>
don't have much space for it.
BTW. Still doesn't work, tried 2.0.34 and 2.2.0 kernels. Is there two
pins I can short together to make it think it has a keyboard?
The motherboard is an old ISA/VLB/PCI no-name thing with an AMI bios. I
wouldn't be surprised is that is at fault.
Shane Hultquist
between the two. Thanks. Now I'm off-topic so I'll head to another newsgroup.
Shane
Colin wrote:
> Shane Hultquist wrote:
> >
> > Is it better to have a hub to hook 2 computers to the linux box, or just extra NICs??
>
Phil Snowdon
> Your (maybe) problem has nothing to do with keyboard. My old 20MHz 386
> needs 4 minutes to uncompress the Debian default kernel. It would
> improve if you use a smaller custom kernel. If I am not mistaken, you
> need to give your machine more time not a keyboard.
With a keyboard it takes a few seconds to uncompress the kernel. From
x86.org it _could_ be something to do with the A20 which is controlled
by the keyboard controller. I'm guessing that only some motherboard
implementations need the keyboard there to do the switch.
The reason for this is that the only part of setup.S which waits for
anything is checking to see that A20 really *is* enabled. This
probably explains why the boot sequence continues as soon as a keyboard
is plugged in.
Anyway I'm off on holiday now. Plenty of time to think of a solution.
Robert Heller
In a message on Wed, 24 Feb 1999 21:41:02 -0500, wrote :
C> Shane Hultquist wrote:
C> >
C> > Is it better to have a hub to hook 2 computers to the linux box, or just extra NICs??
C>
C> If you're just hooking up two computers together, all you need is the two
C> NIC for those two computers and a crossover cable. Once you try and get
C> three computers on your network, you must use a hub.
Not if you use 10Base2 (coax). Yes, coax has various problems, not the
least of which is the 'Christmas Tree light Problem' (you lose the
whole 'net when one cable segment fails or someone pops apart a tee)
and 'shared' bandwidth issues. However, for a *small* lightly used
'home' network, coax is cheap and simple -- bandwidth issues are not
generally a problem and with some care, you can prevent cable and tee
problems. Needs no $100 hub. You do need NIC's with BNC's or
transceiver connectors (such as 3Com 3C509C 'combo' NICs).
C> --
C> Reply to "cwv [at] idirect (dot) com"
C>
--
\/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: hel...@cs.umass.edu
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || hel...@deepsoft.com
http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153
Steve Gage
> Not if you use 10Base2 (coax). Yes, coax has various problems, not the
> least of which is the 'Christmas Tree light Problem' (you lose the
> whole 'net when one cable segment fails or someone pops apart a tee)
> and 'shared' bandwidth issues. However, for a *small* lightly used
> 'home' network, coax is cheap and simple -- bandwidth issues are not
> generally a problem and with some care, you can prevent cable and tee
> problems. Needs no $100 hub. You do need NIC's with BNC's or
> transceiver connectors (such as 3Com 3C509C 'combo' NICs).
I find that 10BaseT is much easier and more reliable, and if we're
talking about a hypothetical small, lightly used 'home' network,
perfectly good 5-port hubs can be had for under $50.
- Steve
Andries Brouwer
:: >
:: >I don't want to have to plug in a keyboard everytime the system is
:: >rebooted. System keyboard entry in bios is disabled. Any Ideas?
::
:: You need to change the bios defaults on your box so that
:: the post does not halt on errors. If the bios setup
:: does not offer such an option you are going to have to
:: put a dummy in the keyboard socket.
::
: All of the bios settings are set to ignore errors, not to wait on "F1"
: etc.
: The bios post seems quite happy, as does LILO, which loads linux off
: hda1. its only after loading and before uncompressing that everything
: stops. Are there any boot parameters that would be useful, or would
: using an uncompressed kernel help?
There is a problem in the Linux boot code, namely the loop
! This routine checks that the keyboard command queue is empty
! (after emptying the output buffers)
!
! No timeout is used - if this hangs there is something wrong with
! the machine, and we probably couldn't proceed anyway.
empty_8042:
call delay
in al,#0x64 ! 8042 status port
test al,#1 ! output buffer?
jz no_output
call delay
in al,#0x60 ! read it
jmp empty_8042
no_output:
test al,#2 ! is input buffer full?
jnz empty_8042 ! yes - loop
ret
in /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/setup.S or so.
Sometimes, in case of a missing keyboard, this hangs forever.
Delete this loop, or insert a timeout.
Andries Brouwer
: I am configuring a system to work as a bridge, using the (still
: experimental) bridge code in the kernel.
:
: This is working quite well, and because the system is at a location where
: keyboard and monitor are quite a nuisance, I am running without both.
: Basically an "embedded" system.
:
: Problem: I need the keyboard to boot
: -1- bios does not check for keyboard (Yes, I verified)
: -2- keyboard is not needed for fast A20 switching (once its up, I unplug
: the keyboard, which is a definite irritation, It means it wont boot after a
: power failure....)
: -3- Linus has mentioned that in the 2.1.1xxx kernels there was a problem
: with booting without keyboard, I just can't remember where I read that. It
: was solved though in the 2.2.x series kernel.
: -4- I am using kernel 2.2.1
: -5- What is the configuration option I am missing???
:
: Rudy Zijlstra
: ru...@edsons.demon.nl
Try and see whether the hang is in
! No timeout is used - if this hangs there is something wrong with
! the machine, and we probably couldn't proceed anyway.
empty_8042:
call delay
in al,#0x64 ! 8042 status port
test al,#1 ! output buffer?
jz no_output
call delay
in al,#0x60 ! read it
jmp empty_8042
no_output:
test al,#2 ! is input buffer full?
jnz empty_8042 ! yes - loop
ret
(in arch/i386/boot/setup.S).
Adding a timeout may solve your problems.