Welcome to the FreeDOS Keyboard drivers page. This folder contains current keyboard drivers that are used with FreeDOS. Currently, two keyboard drivers are ready to be used. Latest versions are: FreeDOS KEYB 2.0 (prototype 3) (2003-07-11) FreeDOS XKeyb 1.15 (2003-05-20) MKeyb 0.38 (2003-05-23) Reduced Layout Pack 1.20 for xkeyb 1.13+ (2003-06-12) KEYB2 prot3 binary and source distribution: keyb2p3.zip XKEYB binary/executable distribution: xkb1_15x.zip XKEYB source distribution: xkb1_15s.zip MKEYB distribution (binary+source): mkeyb038.zip Reduced Layout pack for XKEYB 1.13+ rlp120.zip Full Layout pack for XKEYB 1.13+ flp120.zip (NOTE: xkeyb 1.15 includes the Reduced Layouts Pack 1.15) (download site: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/xkeyb/ ) ============================================================== KEYB 2.0, MKEYB and XKEYB: SIMILARITIES and DIFERENCES FD-KEYB 2.0, MKeyb and XKeyb are three open source drivers suitable to be used with FreeDOS. The three have been designed so that you can choose the one that fullfills your requirements as well as possible. Similarities are: - The three internationalize your keyboard - The three are resident programs, and you are advised to add either in your AUTOEXEC.BAT configuration file - The three support COMBIs, so that you can produce diacritics - The three are capable of getting to a disabled mode - The three are open source software - The three implement the change codepage function (but KEYB 2.0 will support this in the final release) Differences are: - XKEYB and KEYB 2.0 are configurable through configuration files without recompiling: a single XKEYB.EXE file will work with several different configurations, specified in the .KEY files (ex. SP.KEY, GR.KEY, FR.KEY, UK.KEY,...); MKEYB is configurable upon recompilation, and although a single executable is created, all the .h files need to be made available at compile time - The three support enabling/disabling the COMBI section; in XKEYB this is made via the .KEY files, and in MKEYB upon recompilation - XKEYB provides a full KEYB API through int 2F. MKEYB provides only AD82h and AD83h functions, and will therefore probably be not visible to other drivers; KEYB2.0 will have a full API through int2Fh, but is still under development - XKEYB provides an additional API (user and programmer configurable) through int2Fh AD9Xh - MKEYB is ONLY around 4Kb executable size, and around 600 bytes resident size. XKEYB is around 12Kb executable size, and around 4Kb resident size; KEYB 2.0 is around 10Kb executable size, and has typical resident size of 3.5kb - XKEYB serves interrupt 9h, whereas MKEYB works at INT 15h level. MKEYB relies on BIOS doing most of its job, whereas XKEYB relies mostly on hardware and on its own code; KEYB 2.0 relies on int 15h, but has optional int9h support too - XKEYB was originally written by Dietmar Höhman, in TurboPascal and assembler, and is currently maintained by Aitor Santamaría Merino; MKEYB has been written in C and assembler by Tom Ehlert; KEYB2.0 is being written by Aitor Santamaría Merino using assembler (and some high level language for the non-resident part) ============================================================== MKEYB and XKEYB: WHICH TO USE Use KEYB 2.0 if: - you want to reconfigure the driver without recompiling, and you don't need to remap the DEL key - you are working with more than three different layouts and want to minimise disk space - you want to use XStrings Use XKEYB if: - you need to remap DEL in your KEY file - you need a driver that identifies itself through INT 2Fh, and is responsive to KEYB calls, avoiding other drivers to be loaded - you want to use the additional ("X") functionalities, like XFunctions - you use one of the layouts for which MKEYB or KEYB 2.0 hasn't (YET) been ported Use MKEYB if: - amount of free memory is critical in your system - disk space is critical in your system - you want a keyboard driver just for the key characters, and need no extra functionality, you don't plan to use other keyboard drivers, and you don't have special software requiring KEYB to be loaded ============================================================== LAYOUT PACKS Please use the layout packs to upgrade your keyboard definition files to the latest available version. The packs should work for xkeyb 1.13 onwards, although you are advised to use always latest xkeyb version. The version 1.00 of the packs is newer than any layout packed with xkeyb 1.11, 1.12 and 1.13. THe reduced pack contains the classic layouts in xkeyb. The full pack contains a new full variety of layout for a wiser range of countries. ============================================================== HISTORY i2Fh AD80h version release date files ---------------------------------------------------------------- --- KEYB 2.0 (Aitor Santamaría Merino) --- 100h|91 Prot1 (2003-01-27) taurus1.zip 100h|92 Prot2 (2003-02-19) taurus2.zip 100h|93 Prot3 (2003-07-08) keyb2p3.zip OR taurus3.zip --- xkeyb (Dietmar Höhman) --- 0110h 1.1 xkeyb110.zip 0150h 1.5 --- FreeDOS XKeyb (Aitor Santamaría Merino) --- 0150h 1.5 xkeyb15x.zip, xkeyb15s.zip 1.5.1 xkeyb151x.zip 0160h 1.6 (2001-01-27) xkeyb16x.zip, xkeyb16s.zip 0170h 1.7 (2001-09-12) xkeyb17x.zip, xkeyb17s.zip 0180h 1.8 (2001-12-31) xkeyb18x.zip, xkeyb18s.zip 0190h 1.9 (2002-04-04) xkeyb19x.zip, xkeyb19s.zip 01A0h 1.10 (2002-04-14) xkb110x.zip, xkb110s.zip 01B0h 1.11 (2002-05-08) xkb1_11x.zip, xkb1_11s.zip 01C0h 1.12 (2002-06-08) xkb1_12x.zip, xkb1_12s.zip 01D0h 1.13 (2002-07-26) xkb1_13x.zip, xkb1_13s.zip 01E0h 1.14 (2002-10-28) xkb1_14x.zip, xkb1_14s.zip 01F0h 1.15 (2003-05-20) xkb1_15x.zip, xkb1_15s.zip --- MKeyb (Tom Ehlert) --- 0.20 (2002-05-08) mkeyb020.zip 0.27 (2002-07-26) mkeyb027.zip 0.34 (2002-09-19) mkeyb034.zip 0.37 (2003-05-10) mkeyb037.zip 0.38 (2003-07-23) mkeyb038.zip --- Reduced layout packs (Henrique Peron, Aitor Santamaria Merino) --- 1.00 (2002-10-28) rlp100.zip 1.10 (2003-01-20) rlp110.zip 1.15 (2003-05-11) rlp115.zip 1.20 (2003-06-12) rlp120.zip --- Full layout packs (Henrique Peron, Aitor Santamaria Merino) --- 1.00 (2002-10-28) flp100.zip 1.10 (2003-01-20) flp110.zip 1.15 (2003-05-11) flp115.zip 1.20 (2003-06-12) flp120.zip