2.6.* "Pointing Device Error" in BIOS on Reboot

From: Danny Cox
Date: Fri Apr 09 2004 - 11:12:22 EST


All,

Nothing earth-shattering here, but I have noticed that a reboot after
running a 2.6.* kernel (including -rc?s and -mm?s), the BIOS beeps, and
displays "8603\nPointing Device Error" first thing. After POST and the
other card's BIOS routines, it drops me into the BIOS setup. I can
either modify the pointer entry, or just exit setup, and all is well.

The machine is an unremarkable IBM with a Pentium III @ 450 MHz (a
*real* screamer ;-). The mouse *does* connect through a Linksys KVM
switch, although the 2.4 series didn't exhibit this issue. The mouse
itself is a cheap optical scroll mouse I've used for two or three years.

The BIOS is dated "7/19/1999" which of course is ancient (and IBM ;-).

I wouldn't even mention it, except that in the rare case (well,
actually - not so rare: it's happened twice this year) of our building
losing power after hours, the machine will remain at the prompt in the
BIOS setup on 'Continue'/'Exit' instead of booting back to the login
prompt, and my cron backups don't run.

Any ideas? Please reply to me directly, as I'm not prepared to
subscribe to l-k. Further details available upon request.

Thanks!

--
Daniel S. Cox
Electronic Commerce Systems

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