[E3-hacking] Please help in collecting more information on the mailboard interface

[Matt Callow]

Janusz,

There are several emails on the subject in the archives.
I think these 2, from Cliff Lawson (who works for/did work for
Amstrad)  make it pretty clear that it is a PS/2 device

http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/2006-April/000445.html
http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/2006-April/000449.html

Matt

2009/12/11 Janusz Krzysztofik <jkrzyszt at tis.icnet.pl>:
> Hi,
>
> Before I get to work on inventing a driver for the E3 mailboard that could be
> accepted upstream, I'd like to learn more about the keyboard interface.
>
> In 2006, Jasmine Strong wrote:
>> > Huh --- I did look at the defconfig file, but it never occurred to me to
>> > look at that bit (after all, the mailboard is most decidedly *not* a PC AT
>> > keyboard)...
>>
>> Actually, it is-  it's a PS/2 device.  It just happens to be connected to
>> some IO lines, rather than a FIFO, like it ought to be.
>
> Jasmine (I hope you still read this ML), or anyone else who knows anything
> more about that, could you please provide me with as much information on that
> matter as possible? Can it be proved in any way that the keyboard is a PS/2
> device?
>
> For me, the fact that Matt's serio driver interacts correctly with a standard
> atkbd keyboard driver means that reusing atkbd is not as wrong solution as
> Dmitry suggests saying a new keyboard driver should be created. Maybe just
> removing the scancode translation functionality from the Matt's serio driver
> and somehow pushing a custom keymap for E3 into the atkbd instead could be an
> acceptable solution here?
>
> But before I take this way, I think I have to be able to prove that this
> keyboard is not really different from a standard AT keyboard, and writing a
> separate keyboard driver for it, just because the E3 has a non-standard
> keyboard port, may not be a good idea.
>
> Thanks,
> Janusz
>
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