If you have a qwertz-layout _before_ loading keyb.com, you don't have an original version. Most likely, someone made some mapper changes for you (or you did that yourself). To correct y and z (they should be swapped before loading keyb), press Ctrl-F1 in dosbox and use the mapper to swap y and z back to their original places. Alternatively, find your mapper.txt file and delete it to get default settings.

`Moe` wrote:

If you have a qwertz-layout _before_ loading keyb.com, you don't have an original version.

I am very sure that I have an original version, ok I compiled it myself but the source is definetly from the SF cvs server.
That I have qwertz layout before keyb.com is propably a linux thing, anyway swapped y and z is not realy the problem I know that I can remap them. The keys that do not work at all are the real problem.

Load this here and start it with "keyb gr". That's all. So do I, and it works fine.

there once was a version which really didn't work with a german keyboard (.58 iirc), but nowadays it's just the regular setting for an english keyboard, just the same as when you use a bootdisk without keyb gr on an old computer
i'm used to this setting from the old times - so if you try the keys like said in the wiki you can use them even without loading another driver...here they are:
shift + ö = :
# = \
- = /
ß = -
shift + ß = _
shift + 8 = *
shift + ^ = ~
shift + - = ?

i think those are the most important ones 😉
the only thing which is more or less impossible (except for alt+<keypad>) is to get the special german characters (which are rarely used anyway)

I am having the same problem as the original poster (Dosbox v.63).

ilheO, you get the problem the wrong way. Normally : is on shift+Ö, but for us all the ö, ä, ü, etc.-keys do not work at all. Z and y are as they should be on a german setup, but shift+7 returns a & instead of /.

Something must be really messed up. I have triple-checked the localization settings on my linux box and nothing seems out of the ordinary. In fact I have no problems in any application but Dosbox.

Also I have been using Dosbox for some time and in the past it worked just fine. I had a US-layout but that didn't matter to me. But now I have a mixed-up non-working setup and I don't know what to do.

PS: keyb doesn't work either. =(

One of my computers has this problem too. They have the same operating system (W2kSP4), same language, same dosbox.exe. But only on that one computer the keys are messed up. Must be something I've installed...

> I have triple-checked the localization settings on my linux box
> and nothing seems out of the ordinary

Did you try disabling the german keyboard layout?

Dosbox uses the SDL-symkeys for keyboard input, which means
that (under linux) foreign keys like umlauts are reported
as worldkeys. So you don't get any response by pressing
those keys.

@hal: do you have that machine available? what keys does
SDL return??

wd

> Did you try disabling the german keyboard layout?

Hmm, interesting thought! Thanks for the suggestion!

I will try that as soon as I get home. The problem is - even if that works - I don't care about an US-layout in dosbox as long as the keys work. But not having a German layout at all in X would be a real pain. Think about word processing, chat etc. =(

@wd:

Using this code in sdl_mapper.cpp, ...

1void MAPPER_CheckEvent(SDL_Event * event) {
2	
3	if (event->type==SDL_KEYDOWN || event->type==SDL_KEYUP)
4	{
5		Bitu key=(Bitu)event->key.keysym.sym;
6		LOG_MSG("keycode: %x",key);
7	}
8	for (CBindGroup_it it=bindgroups.begin();it!=bindgroups.end();it++) {
9		if ((*it)->CheckEvent(event)) return;
10	}
11}

... I got these corresponding keycodes:

good computer:
ö = 3b
ä = 27
ü = 5b
z = 79
y = 7a

messed-up computer:
ö = 60
ä = 27
ü = 3b
z = 7a
y = 79

Other applications on that computer work just fine... 😕
SDL bug?
Dosbox version is cvs.

Seems like windows does a translation of the keys before
they reach SDL, but that looks pretty odd (it's no translation
according to the keyboard layout).
Does exchanging SDL.dll produce different codes? And are
at least the scancodes the same? (key.keysym.scancode)

thanks for providing the information 😀

Just tested, scancodes are identical on both comuters. I tried sdl.dll 1.2.8 and another one that is 348kb in size and has no version label. Both give the same results.

I've installed DirectX 9.0c on that computer... now it works like the others... duh.

I got the same problem (Linux / Gentoo). 😠 Especially I can't get the ~ for long directory names. I tried the 'keyb gr' method, but it's no use - the keys just dont seem to reach dosbox in the first place.

Really annoying, because I can't mount or switch directories. Workaround is to go into the directory beforehand, copy the dosbox.conf in that directory, and start dosbox using 'dosbox .' which causes the directory to be mounted automatically.

Otherwise it would be unusable.

Did anyone solve this?

I think the preferred method is to simply avoid using long filenames in conjunction with DOSBox.

I have the same problem here---OSX with German keyboard.

A-X work
Y-Z are at German position
The three keys right to M have German layout (even shifted!)
1-0 have US layout
Esc, Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Tab, Return, Fx and Keypad work
All others (1 key left of 1, 2 keys right of 0, 2 right of P, 3 right of L, 1 left of Z) do nothing at all

So I started the keymapper and remapped all of the wrong and not working keys. Then I had an US layout. Next I used keyb to get a German layout. Works fine, BUT: The 102nd key (left to Z, produces <, > and |) cannot be mapped with the keymapper, so I'm still missing it.

Any idea how to add it to mapper.txt? What's its symbolic name?

It's not supported currently as it is not present on US keyboards.

A key that can produce 3 different characters (not counting control or alt sequences, which don't typically produce actual characters in most situations) is unheard of on US keyboards.

That's what the "Alt Gr" (right Alt) on German keyboards is good for, it is like another "Shift" key. When pushed and held down, some keys change their letter:
q -> @
m -> µ
e -> €
< -> |
23 -> ²³
7890ß -> {[]}\
+ -> ~

I don't understand it. Since the very first AT-keyboard there have been 101-keys and 102-keys version of it. Even the XT keyboards before had 86 and 87 key versions. But now, 20 years later, there is still plenty of new software that fails on the 102nd key. I don't understand it.

At least the right ALT key is handled properly by DOSBox. Other software (such as Microsoft's Virtual PC) fails here...