I have an AlphaServer 1200 with PS/2 keyboard which works perfectly using my installed system (older version of gentoo), and in the SRM console, etc.. but as soon as it boots from the CDROM using install-alpha-minimal-20100227.iso the keyboard goes dead. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. boot from the aforementioned iso using the cdrom drive (i.e. 'boot dka500 -flags 0' from SRM) 2. wait until you get keyboard layout prompt or the # prompt. 3. observe that the keyboard is not working at either point. Actual Results: The keyboard goes dead. Expected Results: The keyboard should be working. I tried using the interactive boot in SRM and passed a 'nousb' parameter in addition to the defaults (my machine does not have USB), but it had no effect. I also tried booting with the keyboard unplugged and then plugging it in after, and simply unplugging and plugging back in... neither of which had any effect. My next plan is to try using serial, but I have to get a usb adapter because my laptops don't have serial ports.
The system works fine via serial, but so far I have been unsuccessful in attempts to re-enable the keyboard from a serial console. I have noticed by repeatedly toggling numlock during the boot sequence that the keyboard stops working after it begins scanning/loading modules from the initrd. They all go by too quickly to tell which one it is, but it seems to be in the first screen-full or so. If I boot with the 'nodetect' flag, the keyboard will work fine, but no modules are loaded of course. I am examining the scripts in the initrd to see how the modules are loaded, and then I'm going to try testing them one at a time on the alpha to see where the keyboard stops working.
I don't know what is going on... I went to interactive boot, did nodetect, and then started loading modules one at a time from the shell, in the same order that the init script would do it, and none of them caused the keyboard to stop working even though I went a long way past where the keyboard stops working during the "normal" boot.
(In reply to comment #0) > Steps to Reproduce: > 1. boot from the aforementioned iso using the cdrom drive (i.e. 'boot dka500 > -flags 0' from SRM) > 2. wait until you get keyboard layout prompt or the # prompt. > 3. observe that the keyboard is not working at either point. > > Actual Results: > The keyboard goes dead. > I had the same exact issue with a Personal Workstation 500au using a PS/2 keyboard while booting the install-alpha-minimal-20100227.iso image.
I ended up messing with the initramfs to add a pause between each module load and then rebuilt a new iso image which was otherwise identical to the one mentioned in the initial description. Long story short: pata_qdi is the source of my pain. From the SRM console I did 'boot dka500 -fl i' to get interactive mode, and then copied the default boot command and appended 'noload=pata_qdi' as an extra paramter at the end and the CD booted all the way to the # prompt with the keyboard still working! I am not sure what the best way to resolve this bug is... but I do have a work around that works for me. I can't tell what pata_qdi is for so I don't know if it would be appropriate to leave it out of the iso entirely or not (perhaps for some alphas it is needed?).
After discussing this on IRC, we (the alpha team with our trusty sidekick Matt) decided to dump the QDI driver in future install media - it's a VLB (yes VESA Local Bus) card and there isn't any relevant Alpha with that bus. We'll also clean up any other remaining VLB-only drivers.
This has been fixed for a while and there have been no new bug reports.
