Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 09:13:25 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: "Foster, Jim" <JFOSTER@CSKAUTO.COM> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Meta-key and 107-key keyboard Message-ID: <19981030091325.B5846@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <BF4A830F5207D2119420006008A1DB147F0870@v128041.vandenberg.af.mil>; from Foster, Jim on Thu, Oct 29, 1998 at 10:31:44AM -0700 References: <BF4A830F5207D2119420006008A1DB147F0870@v128041.vandenberg.af.mil>
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On Thursday, 29 October 1998 at 10:31:44 -0700, Foster, Jim wrote: > Greg, > > I tried your keymap file last night and it would not work for me. After > downloading it I tried using > kbdcontrol -l /usr/share/syscons/us.emacs.kbd > and I get the terse error message: > Invalid key definition Well, I tried it and got kbdcontrol: keymap file not found: No such file or directory > Boy!, that told me a lot. Well, it told me that the pathname was wrong. It should be /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/us.emacs.kbd. It's not a problem if you do it manually, but it is if you want it to happen automatically at startup. > Maybe it had to due to the fact that I really have a 107-key > keyboard instead of the 104 that I originally said. I don't think that makes any differnce. > By the way, I am running 2.2.7-R, but recompiled for options that > natd needs. Ah, I tried it there and got the same results. It would be nice if it told you the line, wouldn't it? > Any way, I did some more playing around. I used kbdcontrol to dump out my > default keymap and edited it. On a lark I tried changing one of the lalt's > (scancode 056 on my map) to meta. I loaded the map and IT WORKED! Next, I > went into your us.emacs.kbd file and I could not find the word 'meta' > anywhere. What indicates to your system that the alt key is the meta key? Nothing. It maps the characters directly if the Alt key is pressed. > Finally, I noticed that towards the bottom of my keymap file I had three > lines saying... > 105 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 O > 106 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 O > 107 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 O > I changed them to... > 105 'a' fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 fkey62 O > 106 'b' fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 fkey63 O > 107 'c' fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 O > > Sure enough, the left window key printed 'a', the right window key printed > 'b', and the menu key printed 'c'. > > So, I went back in to the file and changed it to... > 105 meta meta meta meta meta meta meta meta O > 106 meta meta meta meta meta meta meta meta O > 107 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 fkey64 O > and now my two window keys are my meta keys, freeing up the alt key to be > what ever it is suppose to be. :-) Well, it doesn't do very much in text mode. But I suppose this way it can continue not doing very much. > Also, at the VERY bottom of my keymap file I had several records that were > structured like this... > dtil '~' ( 'a' 227 ) ( 'A' 195 ) ( 'n' 241 ) ( 'N' 209 ) > ( 'o' 245 ) ( 'O' 213 ) > > I can only assume it is used to take two keystrokes and combine it into one > "international" character. Being one of those ignorant Americans, I don't > tend to use many of those, that's why I am guessing ;-) You could read keyboard(4), but you'd still be guessing. I suppose I need to look at this and fix the man page. Some time. > So, it seems that I have solved my only problem, but this leaves some > academic questions unanswered. > 1. Why didn't your keymap file work on my box? Looks like it contains new stuff introduced for 3.0. > 2. What about your keymap file indicates that the alt key is really the meta > key? It's the 'alt' column. It specifies a different code for alt, etc. For example, here's the 'a' key for us.emacs.kbd: # scan cntrl alt alt cntrl lock # code base shift cntrl shift alt shift cntrl shift state # ------------------------------------------------------------------ 030 'a' 'A' soh soh 225 193 129 129 C And here it is in us.iso.kbd: 030 'a' 'A' soh soh 'a' 'A' soh soh C > 3. And on a slightly different subject, *exactly* how do the letters at the > end of each line affect the keymap. All I can find in the docs is that it > determines how the map is treated with the caps-lock and num-lock on, but it > does not say HOW to use them. I'd have to dig too. Maybe somebody else would like to. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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