---
name: "pckbc"
section: "4"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pckbc"
---

# pckbc(4)

PC (ISA) keyboard controller driver

## NAME

**pckbc** – PC (ISA) keyboard controller driver

## SYNOPSIS

**pckbc\* at isa? flags 0x00**            (alpha, amd64, i386, loongson) **pckbc\* at acpi? flags 0x00**           (amd64) **pckbc\* at ebus?**                      (sparc64) **pckbd\* at pckbc?** **pms\*   at pckbc?**

## DESCRIPTION

The **pckbc** driver handles resource allocation and device attachment for the traditional PC/AT keyboard controller, or emulations thereof. It provides up to two logical connections for child devices, the “keyboard” slot for a keyboard and the “auxiliary” slot for mice (the latter might be missing in older keyboard controllers, or recent emulations).

To avoid attaching a phantom PS/2 keyboard device, the [isa(4)](/isa/4.md) attachment of the **pckbc** driver will attempt to detect USB legacy keyboard emulation on amd64 and i386 systems. Unfortunately, the detection heuristics may fail on older systems with a real PS/2 keyboard. The keyboard can be forced to attach on these systems, by changing the device flags to 1.

The [acpi(4)](/acpi/4.md) attachment of the **pckbc** driver defaults to attach only where it would perform better than its legacy [isa(4)](/isa/4.md) attachment. Should this logic be insufficient, it is possible to force it to always attach, by changing its device flags to 1.

## SEE ALSO

[acpi(4)](/acpi/4.md), [ebus(4)](/ebus/4.md), [intro(4)](/intro/4.md), [isa(4)](/isa/4.md), [pckbd(4)](/pckbd/4.md), [pms(4)](/pms/4.md), [boot\_config(8)](/boot_config/8.md)