VOGONS


First post, by smjg

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Using DOSBox 0.72, Windows Vista Home Premium, UK 105-key keyboard (Dell RT7D50 USB if that makes a difference).

An improvement of 0.72 over 0.70 is that it actually has a UK layout. But some keys still map incorrectly. I've managed to put most of them right using the keymapper facility; however, there are still problems:

  1. Some of the keys I reassign show up as "unknown key"; these work once assigned, but it doesn't save these mappings properly, and so I have to map them again when I next run DOSBox.
  2. I often have to press the ` key twice before it registers. And once it has, it often gets stuck.
  3. The keymapper won't accept the \ key on my keyboard. If I try pressing it, nothing happens.

Who else has experienced this? Has anybody come up with a solution?

Reply 1 of 15, by Neorave

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I've had pretty much the same problem as well.

I have an Acer Aspire 5920G laptop (with the 437 US keycode layout), running Windows Vista Home Premium and DOSBox 7.2.

One thing I will add about the mapper is that the default mapper configuration has ' [ ] and \ bound to the exact keys, but when I type those keys, ' and [ won't even register, and ] outputs [ and \ outputs ].

Now, I can remap these keys, but I have to do it every time I enter DOSBox, which is sometimes a hassle, especially since I'm going to use it for a class presentation on QBASIC.

Reply 2 of 15, by wd

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I presume both of you have already tried the stuff mentioned in the readme, right?

Reply 3 of 15, by smjg

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Neorave - you're basically saying the same as I'm saying, just in different words. Those particular mismappings are the same on mine (except that on my UK keyboard, it's a # key not a \ key.

And yes, I have tried what's in README.txt. But I hadn't noticed the section "Q: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox." before.

  • About half of the "fixes" there are actually workarounds.
  • usescancodes=true is already set. If I change it to false, it gets worse - each of the keys that shows up as "Key unknown key" in the mapper types all of the characters assigned to any of them.
  • I'd be very surprised if a third-party keyb.com solves it, considering that DOSBox itself is failing to save the keymappings properly and not accepting that my \ key (between left shift and Z) even exists.

Reply 4 of 15, by MiniMax

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I am no keyb / mapper wizard, but I think it is important to be clear in which context the keyboard mapping is wrong.

Is it at the DOSBox prompt?
Or is it when running a certain application?

Someone mentioned QBASIC?

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Reply 5 of 15, by smjg

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It's throughout DOSBox, whether at the command prompt, within an application or in the keymapper UI.

Here's what happens. I go into the keymapper. Out of the box, all keys showed up as correctly mapped. However, if I try to assign the [ key on my keyboard, it appears in the UI as "Key unknown key", and if I try to assign the ] key, it appears as "Key [". Similarly, if I try to assign # (in the same place as \ is on a US keyboard), it appears as "Key ]". If I try assigning my \ key in the keymapper, it fails to register that any key has been pressed at all.

So the problem must be in the layer that processes the keystrokes (WM_KEYDOWN, etc. messages) and translates them to the codes that DOSBox uses internally.

Reply 6 of 15, by wd

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I go into the keymapper

Don't do that. First of all you have to make the US layout working,
as everything relies on this.
Search the forum for windib and try some older sdl.dll

Reply 7 of 15, by Neorave

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Don't do that. First of all you have to make the US layout working,
as everything relies on this.
Search the forum for windib and try some older sdl.dll

I tried older SDL files from 0.65 and 0.71. 0.71 is unchanged, but 0.65 won't work with 0.72, since it has some classes missing.

Reply 8 of 15, by wd

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Maybe try setting SDL_VIDEODRIVER=windib (env var).

Reply 9 of 15, by DOSgamerGirl

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I have the same problem with my backslash key.

I'm at college with an Acer 5520 laptop (I miss my desktop! 🙁 ). I used to play DOS games in DOSbox all the time on my desktop, but the backslash key doesn't work on my stupid laptop! Can someone help me figure this out??

Reply 10 of 15, by MiniMax

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MiniMax wrote:

Is it at the DOSBox prompt?
Or is it when running a certain application?

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Reply 11 of 15, by Neorave

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Ok, I'm going to kill this thread once and for all. I believe, due to the fact that most of us are running Windows Vista, that it has to do something with the DOSBox's kyeboard function interaction with Vista. I'm guessing that nothing can fix it unless either an update from the DOSBox authors fix it, or a miracle happens when Vista SP1 comes out.

Reply 12 of 15, by eL_PuSHeR

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Neorave wrote:

...due to the fact that most of us are running Windows Vista...

Are you sure? Vista sucks for me. Just as W98ME did.

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Reply 13 of 15, by thatroom

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uhh.. vista? no. i'm running ubuntu. i would never be so stupid as to run vista.

Reply 14 of 15, by Qbix

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did you read the newspost on dosbox.com ?

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 15 of 15, by IIGS_User

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DOSgamerGirl wrote:

I have the same problem with my backslash key.

I'm at college with an Acer 5520 laptop (I miss my desktop! 🙁 ). I used to play DOS games in DOSbox all the time on my desktop, but the backslash key doesn't work on my stupid laptop! Can someone help me figure this out??

Why do you need the backslash key? Just use the normal slash sign ("/") instead of. 🤑

Klimawandel.