Recovery from i8042 no controller found during boot?

I don't think that this message is fatal. I have a CentOS 7 installation that throws this message (onto the boot screen and the kernel log) but continues, completing the boot successfully. On my system, the keyboard and mouse are USB, not PS/2, and (I imagine) not USB-emulating-PS/2.

Have a look at the kernel log. It may show that booting stops elsewhere. That may require editing the boot parameters: remove "rhgb" and "quiet".

Emulation of PS/2 devices for USB keyboards and mice is technically quite tricky. It is done by the firmware behind the scenes, using SMM. Usually there is a firmware ("BIOS") configuration option to enable or disable it. Perhaps this set differently on your two computers.