[PLUG] Nondeterministic bootup?(more info)

[Phil Tomson]

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Phil Tomson wrote:

>
> I've just installed Mandrake 9...
>
> Something strange that i've noticed is that every other time I boot up
> this machine the mouse doesn't work - it apparently conflicts with the
> modem.  I'm using a PCI modem and mouse plugged into the aux port.
>
> The following link was made for /dev/modem:
> /dev/modem -> /dev/tts/4
>
> What the heck is /dev/tts/4 (does it mean serial port 4)?  I'm used to the
> serial devices being named something like: /dev/ttyS0 (I guess I'm behind
> the times :)
>
> /proc/pci lists the following for the modem (this is the bootup where the
> mouse works, though):
>   Bus  0, device  11, function  0:
>     Serial controller: US Robotics/3Com 56K FaxModem Model 5610 (rev 1).
>       IRQ 5.
>       I/O at 0xd000 [0xd007].
>
> I also notice that looking into /proc/interrupt that the mouse has
> interrupt 12, though I'm not too sure what ioport addresses it's on.
>
> It would seem that perhaps  the pnp bios is assigning IRQs
> or I/O ports differently on differently each time it boots (?)
>

I also notice that when it boots up with the mouse not working that there
is no psaux device in the /dev/misc directory, but it is there the next
time I reboot (and as I said, it toggles, one time it will be there but on
the next boot it won't be - it's very consistent).

Phil