kbdconfig change doesn't remain


Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: kbdconfig change doesn't remain
started by: mourafa

Posted by mourafa on July 05 2008,18:28
Still newbie in linux and dsl, I have frugal install in a notebook with regular US keyboard, and the menu.lst below, wich I believe is correct for persistency, but seems not to help retaining my change from keyboard "us"(default) to "us-intl", done via GUI kbdconfig (ControlPanel/Keyboard):

kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi frugal dma toram mydsl=hda6 home=hda7 opt=hda6 host=ALBANY

EDIT: I'm using DSL version 4.4.1

Ultimately, I am trying to replicate the normal settings I do when in MS Windows, when I select 1) a keyboard, "us-intl", and then 2) a language (depending on my needs, portuguese, german or spanish).

Questions:
1) What am I missing here to ensure "us-intl" remains selected?
2) When (or for which circunstancies) should "restore=hdaX" be used?
3) I notice that even without "restore=hdaX" at the boot options, a message apears during boot stating that "something" is being restored. Is this restored thing rather a result from the persistence (home=hda7 opt=hda6) added to the boot options?
4) What is the purpose of the boot option "lang= "? I am guessing it's where language, other then english, is selected. Am I right? (EDIT: I mean just regional LANGUAGE and nothing to do with selecting keyboard layout)

Thanks a lot in advance for any help.

Posted by roberts on July 05 2008,19:08
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Questions:
1) What am I missing here to ensure "us-intl" remains selected?

When using the control panel and selecting kbdconfig, that program tries to write your selected keyboard into /opt/bootlocal.sh Look in that file. You should see a loadkeys us-intl.iso01
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2) When (or for which circunstancies) should "restore=hdaX" be used?

Depends on your needs. Perhaps with both a persistent home and persistent opt maybe you don't need it. However, you should look at /opt/.filetool.lst and /opt/.xfiletool.lst to see what would be in your backup and what would be excluded (.xfiletool.lst). It is entirely under your control. Where you decide and if you decide to backup.
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3) I notice that even without "restore=hdaX" at the boot options, a message apears during boot stating that "something" is being restored. Is this restored thing rather a result from the persistence (home=hda7 opt=hda6) added to the boot options?

You likely already have a file named backup.tar.gz residing on a drive. If restore=xxx is not specified the default is to scan drives looking for it. If found it is written to /opt/.backup_device Clearing this file will stop the backup for the current session. Removing/renaming the backup.tar.gz would then stop future backups as well
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4) What is the purpose of the boot option "lang= "? I am guessing it's where language, other then english, is selected. Am I right? (EDIT: I mean just regional LANGUAGE and nothing to do with selecting keyboard layout)
There are specific languages that the original Knoppix supported. You can see them within the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script.



Posted by mourafa on July 06 2008,22:21
Thanks so far!
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Questions:
1) What am I missing here to ensure "us-intl" remains selected?

When using the control panel and selecting kbdconfig, that program tries to write your selected keyboard into /opt/bootlocal.sh Look in that file. You should see a loadkeys us-intl.iso01

Looking at /opt/bootlocal.sh, I see ¨loadkeys us-intl¨ added after ¨# put other system startup command here¨, though without ¨ .iso01¨.
And it is there even after rebooting, meaning that point one is solved. However, the functionality is not and my humble needs not yet resolved.

By looking at /KNOPPIX/usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty, I find two files ¨us-intl¨ (¨us-intl.iso01.kmap.gz¨ and ¨us-intl.iso15.kmap.gz¨). And I guess it may explain the two options for selection of ¨us-intl¨ when in kbdconfig, via control panel.
I even tryed editing /opt/bootlocal.sh, adding .iso01 and .iso15, and respectively saving and booting with ¨loadkeys us-intl.iso01¨ and ¨loadkeys us-intl.iso15¨, but could not see the expected results neither in Ted nor in OpenOffice´s Writer.

So, something is still missing! Note that when in Windows2000, I select keyboard ¨US-International¨ combined with a language, and I get the same wished results independently from the selected language - ultimately I get the ¨accented¨ vowels and the "ç" (c-cedilla). So, to test if the US-INTL keyboard is working, we can try a ¨c-cedilla¨ by typing quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ” ) key before typing character ( c ) key, or by trying some accented vowels, by typing quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ” ) key before typing any vowel key (a, e, i, o, u).

I understand DSLcore development is THE priority, but whenever  time permits, please give a try in your system to see if US-INTL keyboard works for you and you can get a c-cedilla or accented vowels, and thus determining weather the limitation is in my use of DSL or in some other problem, requiring perhaps editing some files by experts.

ALSO: Thanks for clarifying points 2, 3 and 4. I fixed the RESTORE issue. For now I remain with my persistent home and persistent opt, but in the future I will also try ¨BACKUP/RESTORE¨, disabling the persistent home and persistent opt in the boot options, to increase my knowledge of the usage options for DSL.

Thanks a lot in advance for your time and patience with this noobie.

Posted by roberts on July 06 2008,23:48
You should see a difference at a command prompt, whether typing at CLI or an xterm. Beyond that is up to the specific application in question. You keep bringing up Microsoft. They are a huge enterprise responsible for both OS and Applications. They are a closed system. Many Linux distributions are kinda following that model where there is tight intergation between Desktop Environment and Applications, ie., KDE & Koffice and K K ...

DSL being so tiny cannot afford the luxury of such and most applications were selected on size and functionality versus language support.

I am not knowledgeable enough in specific applications. Perhaps OO uses their own keyboard drivers. Perhaps TED does not support or perhaps TED as compiled for DSL does not support. I can't answer you beyond that. Perhaps a DSL community member who is move familiar with these specific applications can be of assistance.

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