[syslinux] Syslinux keyboard mappings

[Dag Wieers]

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006, Dag Wieers wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Mar 2006, Dag Wieers wrote:
> 
> > But the general problem is this, BIOSes are US qwerty, Belgium uses 
> > be-latin1 (azerty with lots of custom keys). And to complicate the matter, 
> > we're often logged on to Citrix and into some sort of remote java gui 
> > console.
> > 
> > All of these complicate the issue (or at least do not improve it).
> > 
> > Now, somehow I hoped the solution would be fairly simple. Take the us.map, 
> > take the be-latin1.map, create a be_latin.ktl out of it by running:
> > 
> > 	/usr/lib/syslinux/keytab-lilo.pl us.map be-latin1.map >be_latin1.ktl
> 
> Renaming this file from be_latin1.ktl to be.ktl fixed the issue (at least 
> now the file is being used and some of the keys map correctly).
> 
> Bbut the numbers (pressed starting from 1 to 9 and 0 holding the SHIFT, as 
> is required with azerty) map to this:
> 
> 	!@#$%§^&*()
> 
> While pressing the same row without SHIFT results in the correct 
> characters:
> 
> 	&é"'(§è!çà )-
> 
> At least the ones that us qwerty doesn't have are printing another symbol, 
> but that's fine. Fact is now that the numbers (when pressing SHIFT) are 
> not returning numbers. Effectively blocking us from typing numbers :)
> 
> Also the uppercase characters (pressing AZQW with SHIFT) are also not 
> mapped properly.
> 
> So I conclude that the mappings do not have any effect when you press 
> SHIFT. (Which disables the use of numbers on Belgian keyboards when 
> using kbdmap).
> 
> Can this be verified in the code ?

"Of course not.", he answered to himself.

The problem is in the keytab-lilo.pl script. The output it generates is 
missing the correct mappings when the shift-key is pressed.

I have been entering them in a hex editor and constructed the following 
file for a be-latin1 keyboard. (1 key I mapped differently because we 
would lack the ~ sign)

And now everything works as expected. If someone competent can fix this 
(the keytab-lilo code looks a bit ugly to me) I'd appreciate it.
You can use the supplied be.ktl file to verify if the new output matches 
this file for be-latin1.map

Maybe something for the syslinux TODO so someone can find it there ?

That said, the keys that require the ALT key do not seem to generate a 
scancode and therefor cannot be produced.

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]
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