FreeDOS 1.2 French keyboard layout issue

FreeDOS is an open source DOS-compatible operating system

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#187 FreeDOS 1.2 French keyboard layout issue

Status: open

Owner: nobody

Labels: None

Priority: 5

Updated: 2017-09-28

Created: 2017-05-06

Creator: Clem

Private: No

Hello, I'm trying out FreeDOS in a VM so I set it up as explained in the wiki for Virtual Box but chose French keyboard layout with an english system (how I install all my OS).
French keyboard layout isn't working properly in that setup though, key 'M' which is right next to key 'L' on our keyboards prints a comma ','. (but the key next to 'N' which is supposed to print a comma does indeed do so and doesn't print an 'M' so 'M' and ',' aren't inverted)
Keys 'A', 'Q' are inverted, same for 'Z' and 'W'.
(FR mapping is : azertyuiop // qsdfghjklm // wxcvbn)
(In my VM with that set up mapping is : qwertyuiop // asdfghjkl // zxcvbnm)
All other keys seem to produce the expected output.

Discussion

Clem - 2017-05-06

By "as explained in the wiki for Virtual Box" I meant, as explained in the FreeDOS wiki when using Virtual Box...

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Anthony Williams - 2017-05-08

Try mKEYB instead. You may be able to "fdnpkg install mkeyb". If that (for some reason) doesn't work, grab it directly (assuming you have installed FDNET):

ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/keyb/mkeyb/mkeyb041.zip

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Clem - 2017-05-08

See next post :)

Last edit: Clem 2017-05-09

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Clem - 2017-05-09

Okay, chose US keyboard layout at install, then typed in "mKEYB FR", and poof ! back to square one. Could it be because I'm using a (physical) French keyboard ?

Last edit: Clem 2017-05-09

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Clem - 2017-05-10

No idea if it helps but Svarog386 distribution does not have this issue.

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Anthony Williams - 2017-05-12

Outside of trying yet another keyboard driver (KBFR) or manually entering Alt-Numpad digits, dunno!

https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/keyb/kbfr/

Try asking for further help on the freedos-user mailing list.

BTW, what VirtualBox version and host OS are you using? It's probably not their bug, but you never know.

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Clem - 2017-05-12

It's bearable (barely) using US keymap for mKEYB, I'm using Virtual Box Version 5.1.22 r115126 (Qt5.6.2) on Win10 (14393.1198) ^

Last edit: Clem 2017-05-12

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Shidel - 2017-05-18

I have no experience with using non-English keyboards and am probably completely wrong. But, my totally uninformed guess is there might be some sort of double translation going on. It may be that VirtualBox is translating you keyboard input for a DOS operating system. Perhaps changing the OS setting in VirtualBox to something like "other" will help. Or, perhaps the keyboard scancodes have changed. If so, then a new French keymap may be required.

Last edit: Shidel 2017-05-18

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Olivier - 2017-05-31

I am using a French keyboard and it all seems to be working fine!

My autoexec contains these two lines (among others, in this order):

REM KEYB US,858,%dosdir%\bin\keyboard.sys mkeyb FR

I hope this helps!
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Clem - 2017-06-01

I tried re-installing fresh FreeDOS 1.2. Selected French Keyboard mapping. Keys are wrong, went inside autoexec.bat and saw :

REM KEYB US, 858,%dosdir%\bin\keyboard.sys REM CHCP 858 REM MKEYB UK mkeyb FR

Edit: I tried setting autoexec.bat with the values Olivier posted but it doesn't seem to do anything (?) as keyboard acts like a US/UK one after boot up.

Last edit: Clem 2017-06-01
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- Olivier - 2017-06-01
  
  Your reply made me check things out on my side and try a couple of completely fresh installs.
  It turns out, VMWare Workstation works great out of the box, but VirtualBox doesn't, for some reason...
  
  I hope that helps at least a little...
  
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- Olivier - 2017-06-01
  
  Okay, I think I got it, I replaced mkeyb FR by keyb FR and that worked. See if it works for you!
  
  Also, I'm stupid, because I had forgotten that anything starting with "REM" is completely inconsequential (comment).
  
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Clem - 2017-06-02

Very nice Olivier ! It's working now, I have no idea why but it does ^_ ^

Last edit: Clem 2017-06-02

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ptitjoz - 2017-06-16

Hello
I haved the same problem on VM
My PC is an ASUS X205TA and is not possible to obtain the "m" key.
My soluce, at te he install, is to choise the disposition of keyboard in english (défault)
in autoexec.bat, I added KEYB FR
and now all is correct
Regards

Last edit: ptitjoz 2017-06-16

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Sylvain Larue - 2017-09-28

Hello,

I'm trying to use the [COMBI] section for the french accent and I cannot associate the accent keys with the letters a,e,i,o,u.

If I use another key like « it works.

Here is my setup :

[COMBI]
« aà eè #32'
. aâ eê iî oô uû #32^
` aà eè #32'
^ aâ eê iî oô uû #32^

So the lines 1 and 2 works, but not the line 3 and 4.

Does someone has an idea of this problem ?

Thanks!

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