[NTLUG:Discuss] USB Keyboards (again)

[Joel Sinor]

The problem with installation and usb keyboards has to do with the kernel used during installation.  The linux kernels have supported USB keyboards for a very long time now, but the problem is whether your chosen distribution compiled that support in.  Choosing things to put in an installation kernel is a tricky business, partly because when you add support for some things you increase the size of the kernel and may cause problems for older machines.  If your aim is to be small and fit on a floppy disk, the problem is greater.
Debian and Slackware address this by providing multiple installation kernels, but even there it is possible you will not find what you need for your hardware.  Mandrake seems to follow the kitchen sink approach (also, as far as I can tell, followed by RedHat) which is why things "just work" and also why these distros work best if you have a modern system (I have put these on older systems, but variosu things about them make it rough on them.  RedHat 6 worked fine, even with a Gnome Desktop, on an old 486 with 32MB, but ever since nautilus got involved (120MB of RAM for a file browser?? and it always starts with Gnome???) that's not quite true anymore, just for a for instance...
Incidentally, the Nautilus problem is one of many reasons I switched to fvwm2.
If your chosen distribution does not provide the installation kernel you want, and you have/can borrow a similar working system, you can always compile your own installation kernel and modify your installation disks so you can load that kernel on the initial boot-up.  Of course for some reason the few times I have had serious trouble with install kernels that was not an option for me, so I usually ended up with the distribution I could get to install, which is not necessarily such a bad prejudice to have...

On Sat, 12 Apr 2003 15:57:52 -0500
kbrannen at gte.net wrote:

> G S wrote:
> > I realize this is late but I have been using a USB keyboard for a while now
> > with no probs.   Maybe I am too dumb to notice.   I realize you super 
> > techie types dont like Mandrake but those of us who just want a Distro 
> > that works are happy with it.  My PS2 KB died about 3 weeks ago and I 
> > had 3 USBs laying around and tried it and works fine.
> 
> I've never tried a USB keyboard, but I think all the complaints I've seen 
> centered around installation issues with USB keyboards.  So if you already 
> have an installed system (w/ ps2 maybe), and then switch to a USB keyboard 
> later, I don't imagine you'd have a problem, and you're not in the same "area" 
> as those who are having problems (I hope that made sense. :-)
> 
>  > Not thrilled
> > with the KB layout but thats neither here nor there.
> 
> You can change that with xmodmap, if all you care about is while you're in X 
> (especially if you start with an X window (GUI) login).  If you need to change 
> it at boot time so it works in console (text) mode too, see the loadkeys 
> program.  I'd swear I've seen GUI programs to drive both of those programs to 
> make it easier on you, but I don't remember what or where...sorry!  Maybe 
> someone else can come up with the program names.
> 
> I use xmodmap to swap the caps-lock and the left control key, so the 
> control-key will be next to the "A" key as it was meant to be! ;-)
> 
> HTH,
> Kevin
> 
> 
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