ISC 2.0.2 and VP/IX Dos Emulation

[Doug Ingraham]

In article <36515 at ism780c.isc.com>, patrick at scrooge.ism.isc.com (Patrick Curran) writes:
> In article <240 at hdchq.UUCP> diamond at hdchq.UUCP (Bill Diamond) writes:
> >
> >The problem is when users are in VP/ix DOS emulation, whether using a
> >particular DOS program or just at the DOS shell, on both the console and
> >the SunRiver stations, the keyboard seems to "flip out".  The caps lock
> >locks in, and we cannot reset the keyboard.  All keys pressed once this
> >keyboard flip-flop occurs generate an equivalent scan code as if the
> ><Shift> were pressed along with the single keystroke.
> 
> Try unplugging the keyboard and then plugging it back in again.
> This solves almost all of the "lockup" problems I experience.
> 
> Patrick Curran (patrick at ism780c.isc.com)
> (uunet!ism780c!patrick)
> INTERACTIVE Systems Corp, Santa Monica, CA. (213) 453-8649

Don't do this!  Your keyboard and or computer can be damaged
by unplugging and re-plugging with the power on.  They were not
designed to allow this.  I am surprised that anyone would recommend
as crude a solution to any problem as this.

I don't know how VP/ix treates the keyboard hardware, but I have
written a correct interrupt handler for the keyboard hardware under
DOS and it is not easy to get everything right.  I doubt that many
handlers for the keyboard make use of the error detection/correction
sequences mostly because it is poorly documented and it seldom would
make a difference.  The keyboard software could be robust.  I am
guessing that contacting the correct people at SunRiver and Interactive
would get this cleared up quickly.  If others have this kind of
problem, then its software.  If you are alone, I would bet its hardware.

-- 
Doug Ingraham (SysAdmin)
Lofty Pursuits (Public Access for Rapid City SD USA)
uunet!loft386!dpi