From: hoffman@xdelta.zko.dec.nospam Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 5:07 PM To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com Subject: Re: Keyboards [Was Re: using a multihead XP1000 workstation] In article , "Stanley F. Quayle" writes: :On 3 Jan 2001, Hoff Hoffman wrote: : :> Set DECW$DEFAULT_KEYBOARD_MAP to your keyboard -- this is often :> one of the following: :> :> US_LK401AA (LK401, LK461, LK46W), or :> Traditional OpenVMS keyboard... :> US_LK443AA_PC or _LK (PC keyboard :> PC keyboard, using the PC or the LK key definitions... :> :> See DECW$KEYMAP: for the available keymaps. : :Does that mean I can attach a standard PC keyboard but have it operate :like a traditional OpenVMS keyboard (NumLock -> PF1, etc.)? That would :be handy; my KVM switch has VMS, Linux, and Win systems attached to it. If you can find me a "standard PC keyboard", well, I'll let you know... Personally, I try to avoid using a PC layout keyboard -- whichever of the various different "standard" keyboard layouts or terminal emulators or such is in use -- for OpenVMS access. (The choice of keyboard is, of course, is a highly personal and widely variable choice.) PS/2 keyboards for PCs do mostly work on recent AlphaServer and AlphaStation systems, so long as the keyboard itself has support for scanset 3 -- X Windows tends to expect that each key on the keyboard send up-key and down-key events, this is not the default mode on most PC keyboards, and may or may not be available on any particular "standard" keyboard. Please see the OpenVMS FAQ for some related details; see section SUPP4. Please see other discussions in the newsgroups for successes and problems with KVMs. You may find that swapping keyboards via KVM will run afoul of the scanset expectations of the platforms -- when OpenVMS sees the keyboard power-cycle, it does try to reset the mode. Other host platforms and/or the KVM itself might or might not deal with this... --------------------------- pure personal opinion --------------------------- Hoff (Stephen) Hoffman OpenVMS Engineering hoffman#xdelta.zko.dec.com