Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Long standing problem of booting thu kvm switch

[Paul Hartman]

Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@×××××××.com> wrote:
> Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com> writes:
>
>> On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Harry Putnam <reader@×××××××.com> wrote:
>>> However since I can access the bios thru the KVM switch, shouldn't
>>> that mean I should be also able to access the grub prompt?
>>
>> I think that basically GRUB does not have USB HID drivers to know how
>> to talk to your keyboard directly, so the Legacy/DOS/whatever mode in
>> your BIOS makes the BIOS emulate a standard PS/2 keyboard from your
>> USB keyboard. AFAIK. :)
>
> OK, and that jibes right in with the start of my troubles, now
> possibly over a yr when it started... I had been using a ps/2 kvm.
>
> I bet the switch to usb kvm was the beginning of the trouble.   From
> what you said, I'm thinking the fact that the old KVM was ps/2 would
> mean that was how grub worked with it.
>
> Grub is a very ancient program ... though I recall when linux users
> relied on lilo.  But it seems development on grub has stalled quite
> some time ago.

The development on the version of grub that most of us use (grub 0.xx
series, now called grub-legacy) stopped something like 5 years ago so
they could begin again on grub2. grub2 is still under active
development and is usable but development status would still be
classified as unstable and they could make major compatibility-defying
changes at any time if they wanted to.

There have been patches to the legacy grub to add support for things
like GPT so it still gets the job done for most people in most
ordinary cases.

Here's a page that lists the current features of grub2:
http://grub.enbug.org/CurrentStatus