Unresponsive console menu V2.2.4
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I've installed more than a few copies of pfSense and have run into an issue on a few occasions where the console keyboard stops responding.
The few times I've noticed this is when I've hit "Enter" repeatedly, (impatiently) waiting to see if a modem is going to refresh and give me a WAN IP.
After hitting "Enter" 5+(?) times in rapid succession, a few systems don't refresh the menu and the keyboard stops responding.
The physical keyboard is "alive", Numlk & Capslk work and the ScrLk lets me move back and forth through the screen buffer, but nothing else seems to respond.
pfSense continues to run without a problem, I can access the GUI and even SSH in and get a console.
I've tried unplugging the keyboard and even changing to a different model of keyboard and I can't seem to get the menu back.
I've seen this happen with both USB and PS2 keyboards.
It's not a huge issue just an annoyance when it occurs, as the only way I can get a physical menu is by rebooting the box.
I'd love if there was a keystroke or even a command line I could use to force the physical menu to restart without restarting everything else…...
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The workaround for this old Sun bug may be helpful.
SunSolve Bug ID: 4256482
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Problem: Banging on keyboard during cde startup causes dtwm hang
Workaround: Don't bang on the keyboard like a wild monkey -
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Workaround: Don't bang on the keyboard like a wild monkey
:D
Yah, I've considered that too …
Part of the reason this remains a nuisance is that my "rapid succession" rate could be as "slow" as 5 times in 7 seconds.
Not exactly "patient" but not "wild monkey" speed either. -
I've not seen this happen before on a VGA or serial console, and I have been guilty of mashing enter a bit before.
Try pressing ctrl-c or ctrl-d next time it happens, and if you have GUI access check the system log to see if it complained about anything there, like maybe a limit was reached.
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Well it just so happens I'm sitting beside one of these today (and for a week more, I'm on site at a remote customer).
This is a Dell PE1850 last rebooted about a month ago when I brought it up to 2.2.4.
<enter>, <ctrl-c>, <ctrl-d>all do nothing to change the screen display.
<scrlk>lets me review all the way back to the previous boot messages.
If I unplug and plug in the USB keyboard I get status messages on screen showing the USB disconnect and reconnect.
The System->General log file goes back to the reboot and doesn't show me anything horribly bad - it does log the keyboard dis/re-connects as well.
Very peculiar…......</scrlk></ctrl-d></ctrl-c></enter>
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Here's recent the log file in case someone see's something I can't….
