The answer is that DOSBox uses the US standard keyboard layout as DOS did.

To change this, you need to use the KeyB program. See the "New Faq.doc" in the General DOSBox forum. The answer/instructions to the question are in that FAQ document.

(First read the instructions in the FAQ then read below)

To know what extention to use for your keyboard, you can find it out by using D.O.G. Create a new profile, fill in the name, goto input devices, then select keyboard. Here you can find the localize button. Press the button, this will try to detect the keyboardlayout used by Windows. Select Change Keyboard Layout.
Press OK and do a right click on the profile and select view conf file. Then you'll see the conf file generated by D.O.G and the used keyboard layout.

If the localize button doesn't locate the used layout then you're out of luck and you'll need to do it the hard way by trial and error. I would recommend using D.O.G. for this as it is easy to go through the list of available layouts without forgetting one. To test the configuration then just do a doubleclick on the profile to start DOSBox.

Erik.

Or change keyboardlayout=xxx in your dosbox.conf.

h-a-l: to find out what layout to use Erik gave a good answer (which basically includes yours).

I can't find a localize button in D.O.G. (1.53). The four buttons at the bottom of the keyboard tab are OK, Cancel, Templates, and Standard. I've tried a lot of the templates manually and they all have the same layout problem, the qwer... row of keys only has two buttons after the letters (brackets) whereas my keyboard has three, brackets and backslash. The next row of letters, asdf...., has three buttons after the letters (semicolon, aporsphe, and backslash, whereas mine only has the first two and a big enter key. According to system information my keyboard is:
Description: Microsoft eHome MCIR Keyboard
Name Enhanced (101- or 102-key)
Layout 00000409

Thanks for any help
Josh

Sorry about that I should have mentioned it was version 1.54 i was talking about.

Oh and be on the lookout in the command window for messages such as "unknown keyboard layout" or something similar. If so then you'll need to copy the sys files as mentioned in the FAQ.

Edit : I just looked up the 409 keyboard layout and Windows says it is a keyb us. So maybe something strange in the us keyboard layout?

Edit 2 : Well me again, try out US International in the conf file keyb ux. Strange though as this should be the DOSBox standard.

Erik.

My guess would be the standard US keyboard has changed since DOS's days. I remember all computers used to have an L shaped enter key, and wow they're just a bar. Thanks tho, I'm trying D.O.G. 1.54 right now
Josh

Try usescancodes=false in dosbox.conf.

I found a dumb way to fix it. D.O.G. 1.54 localized me as Australian keyboard. I went into the "mapper" file and changed two variables. I made Key_rbracket 92 (it's not used as far as i can tell) and i made key_blackslash 93, which is the backslash key on my keyboard. Now I can't use right brackets, but somehow I don't think that will matter much. I hope this helps someone. It's a pretty easy fix if you just want blackslash capabilites.
Josh