Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 10:31:44 -0700 From: "Foster, Jim" <JFOSTER@CSKAUTO.COM> To: "'Greg Lehey'" <grog@lemis.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: Meta-key and 107-key keyboard Message-ID: <BF4A830F5207D2119420006008A1DB147F0870@v128041.vandenberg.af.mil>
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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
Boy!, that told me a lot. Maybe it had to due to the fact that I really
have a 107-key keyboard instead of the 104 that I originally said. By the
way, I am running 2.2.7-R, but recompiled for options that natd needs.
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?
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. :-)
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 ;-)
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?
2. What about your keymap file indicates that the alt key is really the meta
key?
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.
Thanks for your help.
Jim
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Lehey [SMTP:grog@lemis.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 5:20 PM
> To: Gary Kline
> Cc: JFOSTER@CSKAUTO.COM; freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> Subject: Re: Meta-key and 104-key keyboard
>
> On Wednesday, 28 October 1998 at 16:13:21 -0800, Gary Kline wrote:
> > According to Greg Lehey:
> >> On Wednesday, 28 October 1998 at 8:41:46 -0700, Foster, Jim wrote:
> >>> Hi all;
> >>>
> >>> I have a 104-key keyboard on my FreeBSD box and I am trying to find a
> way to
> >>> map the "funny little" windows key as the meta-key in the console
> since bash
> >>> likes to use the meta key for certain editing functions. In the
> current
> >>> mode, I need to press the ESC key and then some other key to do the
> meta
> >>> function. I am hoping to find a way to re-map the windows key to do
> that
> >>> for me.
> >>>
> >>> It appears I need to modify the keymap in /usr/share/syscons/keymaps,
> but I
> >>> am not sure *what* needs to get changed or added.
> >>
> >> Well, I don't know about the Microsoft key, but most people use Alt
> >> for Meta. I've just noted, with some surprise, that we don't supply a
> >> standard keymap for it, so I've put one up at
> >> ftp://ftp.lemis.com/pub/us.emacs.kbd. Move it to
> >> /usr/share/syscons/keymaps and put this in your /etc/rc.conf:
> >>
> >> keymap="us.emacs.kbd" # keymap in /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/* (or
> NO).
> >>
> >>> I have found prior postings on how to do this for X, but I can not
> seem to
> >>> run X on this box (yet another sob story).
> >>
> >> One you need to publish.
> >>
> >>> If someone has some info for me, please let me know if this solution
> will
> >>> work like the current ESC key (tap first key, then tap next key) or
> will it
> >>> work like a CTRL key where it need to be pressed WHILE the other key
> is
> >>> tapped.
> >>
> >> It's like the ctrl key. To create m-a, press the Alt key and a.
> >>
> >
> > I've just installed your keymap on my second platform. Sounds
> > like a good idea to make use of Alt, but will this let people
> > enter ISO-8859-1 characters (e.g. Alt-i == e-aigu) &c??
>
> Yes, if you want to do it that way. There should be a way to select
> an alternate keyboard mapping (like the DOS c-a-F1 and c-a-F2
> keystrokes, which toggled between two different mappings; one thing
> that Microsoft did right).
>
> Greg
> --
> See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers
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>
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