[arch-announce] Linux 3.13 WARNING: PS/2 keyboard support is now modular

[Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Thomas Bächler]

Thomas Bächler wrote:

It has been requested that we make support for the i8042 keyboard and mouse
controller modular. Some people get weird error messages because they don't have
one and the manual probing slows down their boot. Tom took care of this on the
kernel side (thank you) and the result finally landed in 3.13.

In order to get keyboard input during early init, if you don't have it already,
add the `keyboard` hook to the `HOOKS=` line in `/etc/mkinitcpio.conf` and run
`mkinitcpio -P`. It has been in the default configuration for some time.

**WARNING**: There's a downside to all this: On some motherboards (mostly
ancient ones, but also a few new ones), the i8042 controller cannot be
automatically detected. It's rare, but some people will surely be without
keyboard. You can detect this situation in advance:


    $ dmesg -t | grep '^i8042'

    i8042: PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.


If you have a PS/2 port and get this message, add `atkbd` to the `MODULES=` line
in `mkinitcpio.conf` and run `mkinitcpio -P`. If you just noticed that you are
without keyboard after rebooting, fear not! Simply add


    earlymodules=atkbd modules-load=atkbd


to your kernel command line in your bootloader.

I will move Linux 3.13 to [core] a few hours from now, to give everyone a chance
to read this before upgrading. I apologize for any inconvenience this transition
may cause.

URL: https://www.archlinux.org/news/linux-313-warning-ps2-keyboard-support-is-now-modular/