From: valentm@ghost.dsi.unimi.it (marco valentini)
Subject: VGA 80x25 & change keyboard layout
Keywords: keyboard
Organization: Computer Science Dep. - Milan University
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 12:13:47 GMT
Summary: Would you switch in 80x25 textmode or change keyboard layout do it

Hello boy's here's a patch for starting linux in NORMAL_VGA text mode,You need NORTON
DISK EDITOR and a copy of your linux boot diskette.
Now whith DE read disk A: in physical mode and go to Cyl 0 Side 0 Sector 1 (the boot sector)
and edit offset 506 to FD and offset 507 to FF, here's an example:

000001F0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 FD FF 02 03 55 AA  ................ _
Physical Sector: Cyl 0, Side 0, Sector 2   -----
00000000:  B8 00 90 8E D8 B4 88 CD - 15 A3 02 00 B8 05 03 BB  ................ _
00000010:  00 00 CD 16 B4 12 B3 10 - CD 10 A3 08 00 89 1E 0A  ................ _
00000020:  00 89 0E 0C 00 B8 19 50 - 80 FB 10 74 12 B8 00 1A  ................ _
00000030:  CD 10 89 C3 B8 19 50 80 - FB 1A 75 03 E8 45 01 A3  ................ _
00000040:  0E 00 B4 03 30 FF CD 10 - 89 16 00 00 B4 0F CD 10  ................ _
00000050:  89 1E 04 00 A3 06 00 B8 - 00 00 8E D8 C5 36 04 01  ................ _
00000060:  B8 00 90 8E C0 BF 80 00 - B9 10 00 FC F3 A4 B8 00  ................ _
00000070:  00 8E D8 C5 36 18 01 B8 - 00 90 8E C0 BF 90 00 B9  ................ _
   Sector 0 of 2.879                                   Cyl 0, Side 0, Sector 1
   Floppy drive A:                                         Offset 507, hex 1FB
 Press ALT or F10 to select menus                                  Disk Editor

And now a patch for anyone want to cange keyboard layout (like Italian People)

Edit Cyl 22 Side 1 Sector 18 Starting by offset 27 make care of don't edit which you
don't. (If you don't find It make a find in Not ignoring case mode of text string qwertyuiop)
Search on your computer manual a US keybord layout document.now change the string to new
layout.

EX: For my Italian keyboard I have made the following change:

00000000:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - B4 71 08 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
00000010:  FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 - FF 00 1B 31 32 33 34 35  ................ _
00000020:  36 37 38 39 30 27 8D 7F - 09 71 77 65 72 74 79 75  .........qwertyu _
00000030:  69 6F 70 8A 2B 0D 00 61 - 73 64 66 67 68 6A 6B 6C  iop....asdfghjkl _
00000040:  5B 5D 5C 00 97 7A 78 63 - 76 62 6E 6D 2C 2E 2D 00  []\.@zxcvbnm.... _
00000050:  2A 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
00000060:  00 00 00 2D 00 00 00 2B - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C  ................ _
00000070:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 1B 21 22 23 24  ............!"#$ _
00000080:  25 26 2F 28 29 3D 3F 5E - 7F 09 51 57 45 52 54 59  %&/()=?...QWERTY _
00000090:  55 49 4F 50 82 2A 0D 00 - 41 53 44 46 47 48 4A 4B  UIOP*..ASDFGHJK _
000000A0:  4C 7B 7D 7C 30 7E 5A 58 - 43 56 42 4E 4D 3B 3A 5F  L{}|0~ZXCVBNM;:. _
000000B0:  00 2A 00 20 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
000000C0:  00 00 00 00 2D 00 00 00 - 2B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
000000D0:  3E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00  ................ _
000000E0:  24 00 00 7B 5B 5D 7D 5C - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
000000F0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 7E 0D - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
00000100:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
00000110:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
00000120:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ _
00000130:  00 7C 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 20 C0 42 43  ............ +BC
   Sector 0 of 2.052                                 Cyl 22, Side 1, Sector 18
   Floppy drive A:                                          Offset 120, hex 78
 Press ALT or F10 to select menus                                  Disk Editor

PS:you can use others program then NORTON DE but I don't have tested it.

The only problem of this path is that don't works with Xwindows.
But under X all tasks are virualizzed so the keyboard mapping for change it
you have to edit a file usually called .xmodmaprc and add the following
commands:

keycode number=normal_key key_shifted

where number is a octal,decimal or hexadecimal number that you can find with
xev (press a key under Event Tester window and take keycode number.
For example for my Italian keyboard I have added:


keycode 11=2 0x22
keycode 15=54 0x26
keycode 16=7 slash
keycode 17=8 0x28
keycode 18=9 0x29
keycode 19=0 0x3d
keycode 20=0x27 0x3f
keycode 21=0x3f 0x5e
keycode 49=0x5c 0x7c
keycode 59=0x2c 0x3b
keycode 60=0x2e 0x3a
keycode 61=0x2d 0x5f
keycode 35=0x2b 0x2a
keycode 47=0x5b 0x7b
keycode 48=0x5d 0x7d
keycode 51=0x40 0x7e


next save the file and run

xmodmap .xmodmaprc and the job is done.
You can also add this command in your xinitrc.

                                        Marco Valentini
                                        Valentm@pippo.sm.dsi.unimi.it

Newsgroups: comp.os.linux