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Re: Twiddler USB Linux

From: Doug Sutherland <>
Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 04:10:20 +0000

This is interesting. I am surprised but pleased to see that 
Twiddler2 plugged into USB is visible to the PCM-5822 BIOS
at boot time (as an AT keyboard). The implications of this 
are quite significant. I have verified that all of the 
following are possible with Twiddler2 plugged into the USB
port (via supplied USB adapter) and nothing plugged into 
the PS/2 port at boot time:

1) I can boot into PCM-5822 BIOS by pressing DEL on 
   Twiddler2 immediately after power on, and configre
   the BIOS with Twiddler2, save changes and reboot.

2) When the LILO prompt appears, I can press TAB on  
   Twiddler2 to display the partition names, select 
   a partition to boot, and send paramters to the
   kernel if necessary.

3) If my master boot record gets corrupted, I can 
   boot from floppy with a LILO boot disk, and the 
   Twiddler2 works at the boot: prompt, allowing 
   me to mount a partition for booting and send 
   parameters to the kernel if necessary.

4) I can boot from floppy with a slackware boot 
   disk, load the root disk, run fdisk, create 
   ext2 file systems, set up swap partitions, and 
   run all the way through the slackware setup  
   (install) program with Twiddler2. 

That is all pretty cool considering that there are no 
PS/2 devices plugged in. The USB keyboard/mouse adapter 
that comes with Twiddler2 seems to be an excellent 
companion to PCM-5822. I wonder if all this is possible 
on other SBC motherboards??? This is quite a leap over
the original twiddler. Its now possible to toss the 
PS/2 keyboard altogether and do everything with USB.

The other thing that I thought was cool is that kernel 
2.2.18 includes the twiddler drivers for the serial 
port keyboard/mouse. And when I run the slackware 
setup program, twiddler shows up in the keyboard 
configuration dialog, right up  there with ps/2 and 
micro$oft mouse (way to go  HandyKey!). I don't need 
those drivers for the Twiddler2, but its great to see 
them there.  Linux is growing up really fast, and 
harware support is 

Nice work HandyKey, Advantech, and Linux Community ...

  -- Doug

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