From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 23 18:15:13 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CDE56106566C for ; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:15:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gull@gull.us) Received: from mail-bw0-f54.google.com (mail-bw0-f54.google.com [209.85.214.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6BFB68FC15 for ; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:15:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bkbzs8 with SMTP id zs8so4791686bkb.13 for ; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:15:12 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.0.74 with SMTP id 10mr1755077bka.140.1316801712028; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:15:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.204.148.66 with HTTP; Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:15:11 -0700 (PDT) X-Originating-IP: [128.95.17.219] In-Reply-To: <4E71F647.2050007@a1poweruser.com> References: <4E71F647.2050007@a1poweruser.com> Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:15:11 -0700 Message-ID: From: David Brodbeck To: FreeBSD Questions , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: Subject: Re: 9.0 bata2 & keymap X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:15:13 -0000 I don't think not asking the question is the right answer. Asking about the keyboard layout during installation is the right thing to do; working with the wrong one is difficult and not everyone has a standard US keyboard. I think the problem is that the keymap names are kind of obscure, making it hard for users who aren't already familiar with FreeBSD internals to know which one to pick. Many Linux installers ask for a keymap during installation, but they give fairly clear names for the keymaps like "US English 105-key", making it easy to pick one that's likely to work. When I installed FreeBSD-9.0-BETA it took me two tries to find a layout that works because it's far from clear what will yield "normal" behavior. I tried the "United States of America Traditional UNIX Workstation" one first (traditional! It must be standard, right?) and found I had no working Ctrl key. Eventually I landed on "United States of America ISO-8859-1", which worked, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect a new user to know what "ISO-8859-1" is and whether they have it. Surely we can name these layouts a bit more clearly? I think that would solve most of the problem. I would offer a patch but I'm the wrong person to do it, since they make no sense to me. ;)