Set the keyboard type

By default, grub4dos assumes a standard American QWERTY-USA keyboard is in use.

 

 

You can set the type of keyboard that is in use by adding a 'set KBD=' line to the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file.

 

Various keyboard translation code batch files exist in the \_ISO\e2b\grub folder (KBD_xxxxxx.g4b).

 

Use one of the lines below in your MyE2B.cfg file:

 

 

Note: If you have any lines of grub4dos code in the MyE2B.cfg file which require user keyboard input (e.g. password input), you should also run the KBD_xxxx.g4b file after setting the KBD variable, e.g.

set KBD=KBD_QWERTY_UK.g4b

...

if not "%KBD%"=="" call /%grub%/%KBD%

 

A useful reference for different keyboard layouts can be found here. 

The BIOS scan codes for a standard keyboard are listed here (note: Alt+\ is actually 2b00 and some other Alt+codes are not listed).

 

grub4dos key names used in these files must consist of letters, numbers and the following special words (case sensitive): 
escape (Esc), exclam (!), at (@), numbersign (#), dollar ($), parenright ()), caret (^), ampersand (&), asterisk (*), plus (+), percent (%), minus (-), underscore (_), equal (=), parenleft ((), backspace (backspace key), ctrlbackspace, tab (Tab key), bracketleft ([), braceleft ({), bracketright (]), braceright (}), enter (Enter key), semicolon (;), colon (:), quote (') , doublequote ("), slash (/), backquote (`), tilde (~), backslash (\), bar (|), comma (,), less (<), period (.) , greater (>), question (?), space, delete (Del), F1-F10, home, uparrow, pageup, leftarrow, center, rightarrow, end, downarrow, pagedown, insert, shiftF1-shiftF10, ctrlF1-ctrlF10.

 

Note: Recent versions of grub4dos from 2019-05-10 (E2B v1.B1c+) also have these key names for the Alt+ (same as AltGr+ and Ctrl+Alt+) key combinations by preceding the unshifted character with 'A': A0-A9, Aa-Az, Aequal, Abracketright, etc,. Also the single extra oem102 key (between the left-shift key and the z key) can be specified using oem102 and shiftoem102.  e.g. For  Hungarian keyboard, setkey at Av  will  produce @ when AltGr+v is typed, setkey less shiftoem102  will produce < when the shift+oem102 key is pressed. Note that not all these scan codes work correctly under QEMU or VBox.

 

#reset all key mappings

setkey

 

#reset the at (@) key mapping

setkey at at

 

e.g. how to use the grub4dos setkey command - setkey NEW_KEY USA_KEY

#print & if user types shift+1 (!)

setkey ampersand exclam

#swap Z and Y for QWERTZ kbd

setkey z y

setkey y z

setkey Z Y

setkey Y Z

 

 

If you are also defining menu hotkeys, or changing the default password, remember that different systems may have different keyboards connected and that some notebooks do not have a full keyboard (e.g. F11 and F12 may be missing or may not generate the correct scan codes).

 

For instance, on a QWERTZ keyboard, a user would need to enter easz2boot instead of easy2boot or press the Z key instead of Y=Yes.

If you have a AZERTY keyboard and you do not set the keyboard type in E2B, you would need to type eqsy"boot.

On a UK keyboard, the user must enter "fred instead of @fred.

 

For this reason, you may want to pick a password that works on a wide range of keyboards and avoid such characters as a,z,y,q,m,w,z,@,",#,£, F11,F12 and so on - using a PIN number is one option but on an AZERTY keyboard the user must use the number pad keys (or press SHIFT+number key if using the number keys above the letters).