On Fri, Jul 04, 2003 at 09:43:04AM +0100, Julian Coleman wrote:
> I suppose the real solution is for sysinst
> to set and remember the keyboard layout for wscons machines.

If nothing else, a simple, clear statement warning about the danger
of changing keyboard settings or the keyboard itself with regard to
creating passwords should be included in the INSTALL.* files for all
ports.  Particularly, the non-alphanumeric, "symbol" keys are prone
to move, and users in a situation where multiple keyboard layouts are
common should be informed that the glyph they see on keyboard they are
using at the moment (whether console or terminal) may not correspond
to what is configured.  I, too, was "deceived" by that warning to not
use only [a-zA-Z0-9] when creating a password.  Maybe one more sentence
needs to be tagged on to that to tell users to remember which keyboard
they used when creating the password.  Perhaps the warning should not
be issued at the sysinst stage.

I was bitten by a very similar problem (thus I misread that Canterbury
Tales) when first getting started with NetBSD, namely changing physical
keyboards after the initial install, or telnetting in with a different
keyboard layout.  It is not uncommon to have access to a 101-key "English"
keyboard and a 106-key "Japanese" keyboard where I work.  I have both on
my desk at this moment.  I've pretty much memorized the positions of *, :,
", (, \, ~ on both; perhaps not a single symbol key is in the same position.

Anyway, as much as we all lean toward Windoze bashing, I think anyone who
has done much installing of Windows98 or XP would acknowledge that there's
seldom a glitch in the initial install.  The very first thing the user must
identify in the install process of the Japanized OS is the keyboard (three
choices) by pressing a unique key for each.  The first install disk carries
the drivers for all three types.  Configuration of the system is entirely
automatic.

Could sysinst offer a list of all supported keyboards, somewhat along the
lines of the time zone configuration, or would that bloat things too much?

What IS bad about Windoze, is trying to change the keyboard later on; it
practically requires re-installing the entire system.  If configuration of
the keyboard becomes automated in NetBSD, then by all means keep documentation
close at hand on how to change the keyboard, wscons or not.

henry nelson