i8042: No controller found

[mbertrand]

We have this controller that once in a while after rebooting gets stuck with this line on the screen 'i8042: No controller found'.
There is also the Tiny Core splash screen. We know that this is just a warning and we have a usb keyboard plugged in.
The controller is connected to a backup power supply. When this happen we decided that every morning we would turn the power off and let the power supply drain and then power up. This was good for a couple of weeks until now. After powering back up it got stuck.
Any ideas of what could be the cause? At this stage in the boot process is there any way I could get access to file system or make the kernel logs persistent?

[Rich]

Hi mbertrand

We know that this is just a warning and we have a usb keyboard plugged in.

Is it plugged into a USB port or into the PS2 port using an adapter?
If it's plugged into a USB port, try adding the following boot code:

Code: [Select]

i8042.nokbdThat was found here:
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt#1219

Any ideas of what could be the cause?

It's possible the 8042 was initially a little flakey and has now finally failed.

[mbertrand]

No adapter strait usb. I get the message all the time and that no problem but sometimes gets stuck there. Maybe it's what comes after?

[Rich]

Hi mbertrand
Did you try the boot code I suggested?

[mbertrand]

No not yet. The problem is that it is intermittent. It toolk a week for it to happen again!

[Rich]

Hi mbertrand
Then the only thing you can do is try it and wait. The problem with an intermittent problem like this you can only be sure it still exists
if it shows up, but you can't be sure it's fixed because it hasn't shown up. If you can take the unit offline for an hour you could try
forcing the issue by rebooting it for a while.

[mbertrand]

Yes thanks

[CentralWare]

@mbertrand: Without knowing more about the entire "controller" this may or may not be prudent.

I have a machine here which has a specific wireless adapter with buggy drivers based on the kernel being used.  Once in a blue moon the system will boot and I'll get a good number of cached 8042 lines on the screen and it'll just hang there for quite some time (quite a few minutes) before finally the wireless driver bombs.  I initially thought the 8042 was failing, but when I physically removed the unused wireless device, I haven't seen the same problem for almost three weeks now whereas it would show its face at least once a week.  I'm not 100% positive the problem is gone, but thus far it looks promising.  A more detailed hardware inventory may be prudent.