A600 keyboard types wrong characters

[Soopytwist]

I recently got bebek to repair my A600's mainboard (re-capping) and I bought a new keyboard membrane from SellMyRetro as the old one has broken tracks.

While the Amiga boots and the keyboard functions I've noticed a lot of the keys are mixed up. Here's a list of all the wrong keys:

6^ and shift types &
7& and shift types /
8* and shift types (
9( and shift types )
0) and shift types =
-_ types +
-_ and shift types ?
{[ types å
{[ and shift types Å
:; types ø
:; and shift types Ø
@# types æ
@# and shift types Æ
Blank key on the right types '
Blank key on the left types <
<, and shift types ;
>. and shift types :
?/ types -
?/ and shift types _
+= doesn't work
}] doesn't work

Is this a mapping issue or is the membrane faulty? I've emailed both bebeck and Rich at SellMyRetro but thought I'd query the forums as well.

I don't know how to change the keyboard mapping. I had a look in the startup sequence and I see this:

if ${sys/keyboard} NOT EQ "*${sys/keyboard}"
Setmap ${sys/keyboard}
else
PickMap sys: initial
endif

Is this normal? Where is the sys:system/setmap usa1 command?

[Arnie]

To change the keyboard from WB, open a shell and type Setkeyboard gb (or whichever keymap you need)

[ajk]

The membrane is the same for all keyboards (except there may be a difference between US and international keyboards which have two extra keys, haven't compared the membranes).

Judging by the Å, Ø and Æ it looks like your keymap is set to Danish. I don't remember exactly how Workbench 2.x was set up but I think the keymaps are stored on the Extras floppy.

Edit: Yes just checked, Extras:Devs/Keyboards has the keymaps, including "gb".

[nogginthenog]

Could it be a Danish keyboard layout?

http://fontmeme.com/images/danish-keyboard-550x183.png

[Soopytwist]

Originally Posted by Arnie

To change the keyboard from WB, open a shell and type Setkeyboard gb (or whichever keymap you need)

I get Unknown command if I type setkeyboard gb in shell or CLI. I think I need the extras disk.

[Soopytwist]

Ok, if I run KeyShow on the extras disk I see the keys are wrong - this matches the Danish layout as nogginthenog says. But how do I change it to gb? Workbench 2.04 is on the HDD without the extras and there's no keymapping on the extras disk. If I run prefs there is no keyboard settings in there either part from typing speed and if I run SetMap I get: ERROR: no KEYMAP ToolType specified!

[Soopytwist]

Right then. Not finding anything on Google I just guessed and found the DEVS folder on the extras disk and copied gb into the System folder. Then I opened Shell and typed:
setmap gb
That worked. Now the keyboard is British... except the Amiga them immediately crashed and now when I turn it on it crashes before WB comes up.

I tell a lie, before it crashes some weird graphical glitches occur on the screen, like white sparking pixels. Then it crashes several times in a row and either throws up a software failure red banner or just a grey screen.

[ajk]

I told you were they are, in my first reply...

But that crashing doesn't sound good. Just changing the keymap shouldn't cause that. I think you should perhaps just clear the hard drive and install everything fresh.

[Soopytwist]

Originally Posted by ajk

I told you were they are, in my first reply...

But that crashing doesn't sound good. Just changing the keymap shouldn't cause that. I think you should perhaps just clear the hard drive and install everything fresh.

Yes but it had been so long since I was an Amiga user I didn't remember I had to set View All in Workbench to see the DEVS folder. Otherwise it's not there to open!!

I think it's a bigger problem than that. Bebek replaced the caps which fixed the power issues but he thinks there might be a "dry joint". So I'm going to send the mainboard back to him to look at. if that fails then does anyone want a broken A600 for spares? I'm not spending any more money on this folly. The guy who sold this A600 on eBay said it was in a good working order. Bullshit.

[Daedalus]

I take it it's been too long since buying it to raise a case with eBay or PayPal? When they said perfect working order, they probably mean it didn't catch fire and showed the Kickstart screen... Anyway Bebek should be able to repair it for you I'm sure, but if not, either he, myself or a number of others would like it for parts!

[Soopytwist]

How do I permanently set the keyboard language to GB? If I type setmap gb in shell it works but defaults to Danish when I reboot.

[Jope]

Which version of workbench do you have installed on there?

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by Soopytwist

How do I permanently set the keyboard language to GB? If I type setmap gb in shell it works but defaults to Danish when I reboot.

Input Preferences in the Workbench Prefs folder?

[Daedalus]

Just delete the keyboard prefs file and it will default to a US keymap. I can't remember the name or if it's even the same under 2.x, but if you look in envarc:sys it should be obvious which one it is. Of course, the input preferences program is probably the proper way to do it

[Soopytwist]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Just delete the keyboard prefs file and it will default to a US keymap. I can't remember the name or if it's even the same under 2.x, but if you look in envarc:sys it should be obvious which one it is. Of course, the input preferences program is probably the proper way to do it

Okay.

1. There is no input preferences program, there's a Pref program but there's no keyboard setting in it.
2. I have Workbench 2.04
3. It still defaults to Danish if the GB keyboard pref file is deleted, I put the GB file on there from the extras disk to try and fix this.
4. Do I not need to set the keyboard in the start up sequence? I'd put "setmap gb" in there if it worked but I might cause Workbench not to boot from the HDD.

[ajk]

Workbench 2.0 is quite annoying in this respect, it doesn't have the compatibility of 1.3, but it's also lacking many features of 3.0/1.

I know that a fresh Workbench 2.0 disk will, when booting, ask if you want to change the keymap, but I'm not exactly sure where it puts it. Did you check what is under SYS:Prefs/env-archive/sys ?

Are you still getting the graphical glitches or crashes?

[Soopytwist]

Originally Posted by ajk

Workbench 2.0 is quite annoying in this respect, it doesn't have the compatibility of 1.3, but it's also lacking many features of 3.0/1.

I know that a fresh Workbench 2.0 disk will, when booting, ask if you want to change the keymap, but I'm not exactly sure where it puts it. Did you check what is under SYS:Prefs/env-archive/sys ?

Are you still getting the graphical glitches or crashes?

I'll have to resume tomorrow. Right now I'm struggling to fit an HxC RevF into the A600! The crashes appear to have stopped and the problems I had loading some games was because they just don't like Kickstart 2 so I used Relokick and now they work!

The weird graphical glitches haven't happened again while using Workbench. I spent a while copying some .iff images from floppies onto the HDD without any trouble (this was after formatting that partition). I've removed the floppy drive now though to be able to get the HxC in there.

I'll check out the Workbench files tomorrow to try and fix this Danish problem and let you know!

EDIT

Oh, booting from the original Workbench 2.04 disk does indeed ask to set the keymap, unfortunately as it prompts to use a copy of the disk I assume it rights that to the floppy and not to the HDD. So how to do that for the Workbench on the HDD. I should open the startup sequence file on the disk and type whatever is in there into the startup sequence on the HDD. That might do it...

[bebek]

COnnect your hard drive to PC and prepare everything from Winuae - way easier and you can use classicWB. Just create one in Winuae and simple copy it to your hard drive.

http://classicwb.abime.net/

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Soopytwist

2. I have Workbench 2.04
4. Do I not need to set the keyboard in the start up sequence? I'd put "setmap gb" in there if it worked but I might cause Workbench not to boot from the HDD.

Best not edit the startup-sequence, in 2.04 the keymap setting is done with an env variable, sys/keyboard.

There's a tool for you: pickmap.

Have your extras disk handy, open a shell and type:

execute s:pickmap sys: initial

This script should copy the keymap over + set the env var for you with the minimum of fuss. This is the same script that is run when you first boot from a virgin 2.04 workbench disk.

Edit: ah, I actually missed the part where you posted that snippet from the startup-sequence, that would have been enough to identify your WB version. ;-) Nevertheless, there you go. 2.04 and 2.05 are still a bit more primitive than what most people are used to, the OS didn't reach its "final form" until release 2.1.

Many people never really did much 2.0x power use anyway, most had either 1.3 machines or 3.0 machines back in the day.

[Daedalus]

Ugh, it's so long since I've had to deal with OS2 in that way that I'd forgotten it's not in the prefs drawer. Yeah, I vaguely remember now that it's set from the startup-sequence. If you open the startup-sequence you'll probably find that it runs setmap from the env variable somewhere. As others have said, you are better off doing it the proper way, though editing the startup-sequence isn't as dangerous as you think. Even if you get in a state where it doesn't finish booting, you can still disable it, start into a DOS shell and edit it again with the command:

Ed S:Startup-sequence

And change it back to the way it was before.