2.4.20: kbd/mouse problem (PS/2?)

2.4.20: kbd/mouse problem (PS/2?)

[Yves Colombani]

Hello,

I am having trouble with keyboard and mouse using Linux 2.4.20:
- the keyboard is a Logitech Internet Navigator and the mouse
  is a Logitech MX300: both can be plugged to usb but I use PS2
- the PC is a Dell 650 dual Xeon at 2.4Ghz with MPT SCSI controler
- I compiled the kernel from the original source plus:
  + update of the mpt driver (2.03.00)
  + patch-o-matic to add support for PPTP (but modules of netfilter
    are currently not loaded)

During boot the machine reports:
 keyboard: Timeout - AT keyboard not present?(00)

but seems to start correctly.
When I start X, the mouse does not work: to get it working I have to switch
to another terminal (using ctrl-alt-F1) then back to the graphical environement.
It seems that some initialisation is not performed correctly at this point
(maybe from the X server side?). If I disable numlock before starting X, the
mouse works.

Sometimes I get further 'keyboard: Timeout - AT keyboard not present?(XX)'
with various values for XX (ed,f4,02,04).
Finally I have 'lost' the keyboard a couple of times: when starting X or
after a period of inactivity. In such cases, unplugging and reconnecting
the keyboard fixes the problem (I am not sure this is something to do!).
Today the machine crashed after I pressed 'numlock'.

I noticed that someone reported a similar problem also on a Dell PC: could
it be related to the BIOS on these machines?

Thanks for your help,
Yves.