diff -up kbd-2.1.0/docs/man/man8/kbdrate.8.orig kbd-2.1.0/docs/man/man8/kbdrate.8
--- kbd-2.1.0/docs/man/man8/kbdrate.8.orig	2019-06-21 10:08:17.000000000 +0200
+++ kbd-2.1.0/docs/man/man8/kbdrate.8	2019-07-17 10:36:19.876499648 +0200
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Using
 without any options will reset the repeat rate to 10.9 characters per second (cps)
 and the delay to 250 milliseconds (ms) for Intel- and M68K-based systems.
 These are the IBM defaults. On SPARC-based systems it will reset the repeat rate
-to 5 cps and the delay to 200 ms.
+to 20 cps and the delay to 200 ms.
 
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
diff -up kbd-2.1.0/src/kbdrate.c.orig kbd-2.1.0/src/kbdrate.c
--- kbd-2.1.0/src/kbdrate.c.orig	2019-07-02 17:44:57.000000000 +0200
+++ kbd-2.1.0/src/kbdrate.c	2019-07-17 11:07:04.732486323 +0200
@@ -114,9 +114,12 @@ static int print_only = 0;
 static int
 KDKBDREP_ioctl_ok(double rate, int delay, int silent)
 {
+#if defined(KDKBDREP) && !defined(__sparc__)
 	/*
 	 * This ioctl is defined in <linux/kd.h> but is not
 	 * implemented anywhere - must be in some m68k patches.
+	 * We cannot blindly try unimplemented ioctls on sparc64 -
+	 * the 32<->64bit transition layer does not like it.
 	 * Since 2.4.9 also on i386.
 	 */
 	struct my_kbd_repeat kbdrep_s;
@@ -181,6 +184,9 @@ KDKBDREP_ioctl_ok(double rate, int delay
 	}
 
 	return 1; /* success! */
+#else /* no KDKBDREP or __sparc__ */
+	return 0;
+#endif /* KDKBDREP */
 }
 
 #ifdef KIOCSRATE
@@ -251,6 +257,9 @@ ioport_set(double rate, int delay, int s
 
 	/* https://wiki.osdev.org/PS/2_Keyboard */
 
+	/* The ioport way - will crash on sparc */
+
+#ifndef __sparc__
 	for (i = 0; i < (int) RATE_COUNT; i++)
 		if (rate * 10 >= valid_rates[i]) {
 			value &= 0x60;
@@ -304,11 +313,12 @@ ioport_set(double rate, int delay, int s
 		       valid_rates[value & 0x1f] / 10.0,
 		       valid_delays[(value & 0x60) >> 5]);
 
+#endif
 	return 1;
 }
 
 #ifdef __sparc__
-double rate = 5.0; /* Default rate */
+double rate = 20.0; /* Default rate */
 int delay   = 200; /* Default delay */
 #else
 double rate = 10.9; /* Default rate */