On Wed, 06 Feb 2002 13:35:34 +0100, 
Sebastien Lelarge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>We are trying to use KDB-2.1-ia64 on McKinley processor. It compiles in
>the kernel 2.4.17 but when we invoke KDB at the startup with the Pause
>key (on an USB keyboard), we get a frozen screen and nothing is
>displayed when we strike a key. We think that the problem comes from the
>USB.
>
>The USB driver is included in the kernel (not as module) and the
>keyboard works at boot time. It seems that KDB doesn't have the USB
>driver in his list of drivers. 

arch/*/kdb/kdba_io.c, kdba_read does the keyboard I/O.  It currently
has support for PC keyboards and serial console.  AFAIK USB requires
interrupt support which will not work in kdb, kdb deliberately runs
with interrupts disabled.  A year ago, Greg Kroah-Hartman (USB
maintainer) told me that it *might* be possible to write I/O code for
USB in polling mode but it does not exist yet.

After discussions with one of the USB mainatiners, it might be possible
to run a keyboard in boot protocol mode and poll it.  Somebody who
understands USB needs to write the USB equivalent of get_kbd_char().
It needs to implement part of the host controller code in polling mode
then use a modified version of usb_kbd.c.  I suggest you use a serial
console for now.

Apple might have a tech note on how to debug MAC OS-X without a serial
port, possibly using USB.

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