text console availability

[Jim Ham]

Hello,

This turned out to be some weird order dependency in my init scripts. X was 
started along with our application next to last in rc3.d. Last was a script 
that simply called ifup. I had put this last as the default is to look for 
a DHCP server and in most of our installations the network is not present. 
The network timeout introduced an unacceptable delay in our application 
finally showing on the screen.

I tried renaming the ifup script to run earlier and backgrounding it to 
avoid the delay in our application appearing. This solved the problem where 
the USB keyboard didn't work as outlined below.

I'd really like to understand what is happening here. If anyone has an idea 
please send me a note.

Thanks for the several suggestions that I have received.

Regards,

Jim Ham


>We sell an embedded product based on an Xscale processor. Our app runs 
>under X with no WM, making direct calls to X. This all works great. It's 
>started from a script in init.d. X is running over a framebuffer that is 
>compiled into the kernel.
>
>The latest shipments from our board vender (Arcom) now uses the xorg server.
>
>Previously (xfree86) when we plugged in a USB keyboard one could get to a 
>text console via alt-F1, F2, etc. X was running on console #7.
>
>Now when we plug in the keyboard something is blocking the switch to other 
>consoles. If I log in via SSH I can kill X and now the keyboard can switch 
>to other consoles. X appears to be running on console #2. If I have typed 
>something on the keyboard before killing X, I see gibbersh on the screen. 
>So something is going to the screen from the keyboard, but not correctly. 
>Once X is done the keyboard works as expected.
>
>The previous behavior is useful for us. I'm hoping someone can give me a 
>clue as to where to look to restore the old way. I'm not even sure if this 
>behavior is considered a bug or a feature. It's definitely not a desired 
>feature for us.
>
>I'm not even sure if this is the right venue to ask the question. If not 
>perhaps someone can point me in the right direction.
>
>Regards,
>
>Jim Ham

Porcine Associates
+1.650.326.2669
www.porcine.com