*BSD News Article 75034


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From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Re: Booting with serial console
Date: 30 Jul 1996 11:57:05 GMT
Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden
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Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch)
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bdb@GTS.Net (Bruce Becker) wrote:

> |(Alas, the automagic selection between serial and graphics console
> |from within the bootblocks depending on the existance of a keyboard
> |doesn't work right yet.)
> 
> 
> 	I'm not surprised to hear that - some BIOS implementations are
> 	fairly finicky about the keyboard, sometimes hilariously so:

The bad thing is that you can't ask the BIOS whether it has found a
keyboard or not.  This function has been forgotten from the BIOS
definition (even though almost all BIOSes test for it by default).
Apparently the designers of the PC didn't deem it useful to operate it
without a keyboard.

> 		No keyboard found
> 		Press <F1> to continue...

That's one of my favorite PeeCee jokes. :)

Luckily, you can turn off this complaint in most (if not all) BIOSes,
while only very few can be convinced to boot without a graphics card
(AMI can).

-- 
J"org Wunsch					       Unix support engineer
joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de       http://www.interface-business.de/~j