Loading external keyboard layouts \ VOGONS

Loading external keyboard layouts

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First post, by KoiMaxx

Posted on 2008-05-17, 05:45

KoiMaxx Offline

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Posts: 7
Joined: 2008-05-17, 05:12

Hi to everyone.

I know there has been other threads related to this issue but so far I havent found a solution so please bear with me.

This is my situation, my laptop has a Japanese keyboard and I want to set the DOSBox keyboard layout to Japanese. I dont need to write Japanese characters but I do need the keypresses to be correct (":" is shift+; in an EN kb but its a separate key in JP kb). I already have the KEY, KL and CPI files (all named JP.*) downloaded from FreeDOS and saved to my DOSBox folder. I have tried using the following (as instructed in the DOSBox readme) methods to no avail:

- entering "keyb jp" at the prompt only gives me "none or invalid codepage file for layout jp", i have also tried other combinations "keyb jp jp.cpi" "keyb jp 932 jp.cpi"

- setting "keyboardlayout=jp" in the dosbox.conf file only gives me the following error message in the DOSBox status window

No matching cpi file for codepage 932
Error loading keyboard layout jp

I just want to know, how exactly do I load external keyboard layouts?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Reply 1 of 5, by MiniMax

Posted on 2008-05-17, 08:40

MiniMax Offline

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Posts: 5128
Joined: 2004-01-18, 04:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden, Europe, Earth Interests: Old games & young women

As far as I know, you can't just download any version of KEYB from FreeDOS(*). The only version of FreeDOS KEYB that works with DOSBox is "2.0 (pre4)":

http://projects.freedos.net/keyb/

Before the 0.7x series brought support for non-US layouts, I used to create a FREEDOS directory in my virtual C-drive, and used the following command to load my Danish keyboard layout (codepage 850, /Enhanced):

C:\FreeDOS\KeyB.Exe DK,850 /E

I just tried it again with JP and it works (well, I get no error messages).

The FREEDOS directory I use contains the following files:

1a460db91ed449c42202d767ab5736412 *KEYB.EXE
2e4587a917c0caf7910a71e1d4770bdce *KEYBOARD.SYS
3a25b5d82a9a07b6edbcaec8eeea26666 *KEYBRD2.SYS
4b390a6d6121aa41927548af3847068de *KEYBRD3.SYS

I assume you can optimize the whole setting a bit. Either by putting the FREEDOS-directory in the DOSBox PATH, or maybe even by getting rid of KEYB.EXE and copying the SYS files to the same folder where your DOSBOX.EXE lives. But that is something I will leave up to you - I like to keep my installs clean.

*) Just like you can't just walk into Mordor.

Reply 2 of 5, by KoiMaxx

Posted on 2008-05-17, 08:58

KoiMaxx Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2008-05-17, 05:12

thanks for the info...

ive also already tried using freedos as well... it loads properly but then the keys still end up jumbled or nonfunctional... but that just gave me an idea

il try to remap the keys on the DOSbox keyboard mapper then load freedos and il post an update.

thanks again

Reply 3 of 5, by KoiMaxx

Posted on 2008-05-17, 09:05

KoiMaxx Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2008-05-17, 05:12

==== UPDATE ====

It worked! I just had to remap the keys first in the DOSBox mapper then load the Freedos keyb layout. I hadnt thought of the mapping part before... doh!

One other problem though, the mapper doesnt seem to recognize some of the keystrokes (ends up as "key 0" in mapper.txt), so i have to remap those keys everytime I load DOSBox... anyone has any ideas?

Thanks again for the help!

Reply 4 of 5, by MiniMax

Posted on 2008-05-17, 09:43

MiniMax Offline

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Rank: Moderator
Posts: 5128
Joined: 2004-01-18, 04:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden, Europe, Earth Interests: Old games & young women

I heard of this problem with lost mappings not long ago. Somewhere in this forum. Don't remember if a solution was ever found.

Edit:
backslash key in DosBox
Keyboard mapping refuses to work properly for me

Reply 5 of 5, by KoiMaxx

Posted on 2008-05-17, 10:50

KoiMaxx Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: 2008-05-17, 05:12

thanks for the additional info...

im also looking in to it as well... all im getting now are scan codes for japanese keyboards but i dont think that would help if i dont know how DOSBox interprets the keypresses into the key map, or if its possible to just enter the actual scan code into "mapper.txt"

for now this seems like an unresolved issue.

thanks anyway for the help

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