[ale] keyboard re-initialization

[Robert Hoffman]

One of my co-workers was working behind my rack and unplugged my ps2 keyboard. Now the keyboard is not recognized by my Linux/Samba file server. I plugged the keyboard back in but cannot type anything at the console. I can still telnet in for administration, but I would prefer to have the keyboard recognized and working on the file server; I hate thinking that an ethernet failure would leave me with the only option of rebooting the server without shutting down properly.

The easy answer here is to telnet in, shutdown the system, plug in the keyboard, and reboot.

However, I'm trying to prove the value of using Linux over NT as a Windows file server and am trying to get as much uptime as possible. This server has been up for 52 days (since I moved it to its current location), I doubt that anyone will really realize the benefits until it hits at least 100 days.... It's hard to dismiss triple-digit numbers.

Is it possible for me to re-initialize the keyboard without rebooting the server?

If I can't re-initialize the keyboard, what is the command to make a telnet session stay active through a network card shutdown an re-start (I would like to be able to restart the networking services remotely; I may need to change the default gateway)? I know this is possible because I've seen it done before...I just can't find it in my reference books.

P.S. Yes, I know I should be using OpenSSH instead of telnet. I just haven't had the time to set it up in-house yet.

Gracias,

-Rob
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