[ale] Quite annoying message in the Ring Buffer

[David A. De Graaf]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 04:51:05PM -0500, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> Anyone know how to figure out what the problem with this is, and fix it?
> The weird part?  No keys on the keyboard are pressed, and this error
> comes out every few milliseconds:
> 
> [332599.548000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332599.548000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332599.556000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332599.556000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332600.576000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332600.576000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332600.584000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332600.584000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332601.580000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332601.580000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332601.588000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332601.588000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332602.608000] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332602.608000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.
> [332602.616000] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code
> 0x8d on isa0060/serio0).
> [332602.616000] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00d <keycode>' to make it
> known.


I have had a similar but slightly different problem.
A machine with a MS wireless keyboard also did produce similar
complaints, when certain keys were pressed, or perhaps spontaneously. 
The solution was to put this into /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
  # Suppress 'setkeycodes e059 <keycode>' from MS keybd
  setkeycodes e059 254 
  setkeycodes e03b 254 
  setkeycodes e001 254 

This maps three weird key codes to '254', which is a no-op.
Maybe you can do the same for 'e00d'.

-- 
	David A. De Graaf    DATIX, Inc.    Hendersonville, NC
	dad at datix.us         www.datix.us