Installation

[does]

Sort of reviving an old topic (http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,607.0.html#msg2140) which had an HP Proliant computer booting up but not responding to the keyboard.  It is rather hard to go forward with the install without being able to set up the network!      I can see the prompt for the 5 options but I just can not type in anything.

1) The keyboard does work; at least from the BIOS.  I.e., I can get to the BIOS and I can press keys for booting.  But once m0n0wall takes control then no keyboard response.

2) A different keyboard -- this time USB instead of PS2 connection -- has the same problem.

3) Booting up from a CDrom or from a USB memory stick had the same problem.

4) Booting up the beta version doesn't get me to a keyboard prompt (I am not sure if it is suppose to).  Pressing the enter key after 5 or so minutes of booting up does scroll up the commands on the screen.  However this does not get me to any place where I can do anything.  Also the scrolling seems rather slow.

5) The machine in question is an HP Proliant ML115 dual-core Athlon 64 with 1 GB memory and a hard drive.   

There are obviously other options to explore -- (a) does BSD itself both on the machine?  (b) does a different PC have the same problem -- are two that come to mind.  I'll try this tomorrow but in the meantime if anyone has an idea then please let me know.

Thanks,
-- Rick

Came back to work to try BSD on the machine.  BSD itself loads nicely.  Athlon-64 version.  So there is probably to consider in that fact.  I'll do more work tomorrow.

It is still not working but I have more information.

1) monowall does boot up on other PCs.  So it must be this particular PC I am working with.  Thus the obvious idea of using a different PC although the others at my disposal are not as powerful (I want a 1 Gbps firewall).

2) Tweaking BIOS parameters does not make a difference.

3) It is possible that the version of BSD underlaying monowall is the problem.  However the beta version (which, of course, uses a different version of BSD) boots up slowly, very slowly, and never gets to the interface prompt. At least not after 30 minutes -- it stops at the NTP message.

4) A different keyboard does not help.

All-in-all it is very irritating to be stopped by a simple non-responsive keyboard.

I would try the following:

1. Reset CMOS via the motherboard switch/jumpers (more reliable that a software reset).
2. Update the motherboard BIOS if you are not on the latest.
3. Disable serial/parallel/USB/Mouse ports and remove the CD-ROM/Floppy Drive and any other hardware not required.
4. Load up 1.3b15 Generic PC.

Good Luck,  CS...

Thanks for the suggestions, CS.  Unfortunately they did not work.

1) CMOS was reset via mainboard switch.
2) BIOS looks to be up-to-date.  It is a fairly new computer.
3) Disabling serial & USB did not make a difference.  I need the CD-ROM to boot from.

Another point of data.  I loaded pfSense which is, of course, based off of m0n0wall.  pfSense loads very slowly although at least the keyboard works.  By 'slowly' I mean ~30 minutes to get to a useful prompt and hours to do the install from CDrom to hard drive.  After the hard drive install it is still taking minutes to boot.

Whew.  Finally installed something that works.  pfSense 1.2.3 pre-release.  It is suppose to be stable and, perhaps more apropos to my problem, running a recent version of FreeBSD.  The lesson here is to use old hardware for a firewall. 

What about accessing m0n0 over a serial connection? Does that work? If so, you could configure it that way. Just an idea.

The old dos days of IRQ conflicts, mainly, one of your network cards is booting up at the same IRQ the keyboard is using. When m0n0wall loads, well the poor keyboard loses out I'm afraid. Get back to basics, tear everything out of that machine except for the hard drive. Boot m0n0wall with nothing but the motherboard and hard drive (and keyboard of course) and see if makes a difference.

If it does, means you need to configure BIOS to reserve that IRQ for the keyboard, turn on PnP, etc.

If it still doesn't work, then the either the keyboard is doing something that isn't standard, or there is some resource problem with the hardware controller for the keyboard, somewhere.

It may work in BIOS, nothing is really loaded yet hardware wise.

I too have an HP with keyboard problems...

I am able to get the keyboard to respond by tapping  the space bar while m0n0wall was booting.

Looking for a more permanent solution...

Problem happened at the first installation but once the key was tapped and the machine  responded to the keyboard all was well on reboots.  That was until the LAN NIC card died.  When I replaced the NIC I encountered the keyboard problem and now I must tap the keys during reboot every time it reboots.

there is another thread http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,607.0.html which promises a list of changes to BIOS that may help but I don't see the changes listed.

You think this may be a problem that is common to new HP computers?