Command: mkeyb
MKEYB is a minimum keyboard driver for xxDOS, requiring
only ˜500 bytes of memory to support international keyboards
(Russian 452, German 474, Spanish 718 byte).
MKEYB is also an interesting demonstration of
'The Art of writing small TSR's in High Level Language'
FreeDOS has three keyboard drivers: KEYB, MKEYB and XKEYB.
Syntax:
mkeyb [options] code
code location Code Page Requirement
====================================================
BE Belgique (Belgique clavier AZERTY)
BG Bulgarian (use right Ctrl to switch)
BGP Bulgarian Phonetic (use right Ctrl to switch)
BR Brazil (Portuguese keyboard with combis)
BX Brazil Extended (Portuguese keyboard with combis)
DK Denmark (Danish keyboard, no combis)
FR France (clavier AZERTY)
GR Germany (Deutsche Tastatur)
GR2 Germany (Deutsche Tastatur mit internat. Umlauten)
HE Hebrew (Hebrew keyboard, right Ctrl to switch)
IT Italy (tastiera italiana)
LA Latin America (keyboardo espanolo latino americano)
NL Netherlands (Dutch keyboard)
NO Norway (norske keyboard)
PL Poland (polska klawiatura)
PO Portugal (Portuguese keyboard)
RU Russia (Russian keyboard, right Ctrl to switch, CP866)
SF Swiss (Swiss French)
SG Swiss (Schweizer deutsches keyboard, keine combis)
SL Slovenian (Slovenian keyboard, no combis)
SP Spanish (Spanish keyboard with combis, CP850)
SU Suomi (Finnish keyboard, no combis)
SV Swedish (Swedish keyboard, no combis)
TR Turkish (Q layout with combis, mkeyb version: 0.50)
TRF Turkish (F layout with combis, mkeyb version: 0.50)
UK United Kingdom (British keyboard, no combis)
UX US International (with combis, Ctrl+Alt+F2 to switch)
Options:
/L Lists all available keyboards.
/U Uninstalls previous keyboard driver
/Q Quiet - absorb all keyboard input.
/E Specifies that an enhanced 101/102 keys keyboard is installed.
/S Specifies that a standard 83/84 keys keyboard is installed.
/9 Installs INT 9 handler (/9- to disable).
/G Installs INT 16 handler (/G- to disable).
/T Test a specified keyboard driver, don't go resident.
/? Shows the help.
When loaded:
Ctrl+AlT+F1 : International (QWERTY) keyboard
Ctrl+Alt+F2 : National loaded keyboard
on some languages, tapping Right-Control also switches.
Comments:
MKEYB is based on the idea, that the keyboard is already (mostly)
handled by the system BIOS, and that most keys are already correctly
handled by it.
MKEYB relies mostly on the BIOS to do what must be done, and only
exchanges a few keys, as required by the national keyboard layout.
MKEYB (KEYB) automatically loads itself as high as possible
- it is therefore not necessary to use LH / LOADHIGH.
COMBI tables:
These are not needed by all languages, but some (like Spanish Catalan)
require them. they mostly define '`^ + aeiou.
COMBI define characters, that are generated by two sequential
keystrokes, like '+A, `+A, ˜+A, for some Swedish characters.
Examples:
mkeyb GR loads the German keyboard driver
mkeyb /U unloads the keyboard driver
mkeyb GR /T test the German keyboard driver, don't go resident
See also:
chcp
cpidos
display
keyb
kpdos
lh/loadhigh
mode
xkeyb
Copyright © 2003 Tom Ehlert, updated 2007 and 2022 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.