MS-DOS 6.21: Information About EGA2.CPI and KEYBRD2.SYS

   EGA2.CPI
   KEYBRD2.SYS
				

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on these files, see the following text taken from the MS-DOS 6.2 README.TXT file:

1.17 Additional Keyboard and Codepage Support

MS-DOS 6.2 includes the KEYBRD2.SYS and EGA2.CPI files, which offer additional keyboards and codepages. You use these files just as you would the KEYBOARD.SYS and EGA.CPI files. MS-DOS also includes new country settings in COUNTRY.SYS.

The KEYBRD2.SYS file is essentially similar to KEYBOARD.SYS. The differences between KEYBOARD.SYS and KEYBRD2.SYS are:

• KEYBRD2.SYS contains support for the following keyboards, which are not supported by KEYBOARD.SYS:

      Country/Language             Keyboard layout   Keyboard ID
      ----------------------------------------------------------
      Canada (standard CAN/CSA-Z keyboard)   cf      243.200-92
      Brazil (secondary standard keyboard)   br      274, 275
      Greece                                 gk      319
      Iceland                                is      161
      Romania                                ro      333
      Turkish                                tr      440, 179
  						

• The KEYBRD2.SYS file does not include support for the following keyboards supported by KEYBOARD.SYS:

  Switzerland (German)
  Switzerland (French)
  Japan

• The KEYBRD2.SYS file provides access to a few keyboards by keyboard layout (two-letter code) only. KEYBOARD.SYS provides access to these keyboards by either keyboard layout or keyboard ID. The affected keyboards are:

  Poland
  Czech Republic (Czech)
  Slovak Republic (Slovak)
  Yugoslavia
  Hungary

• KEYBRD2.SYS contains changes to the German keyboard that are not in KEYBOARD.SYS. In the German keyboard, the SHIFT lock behavior of the top row of the keyboard now remains unaffected, and is now functionally the same as the U.S. keyboard (that is, "typewriter mode" has been removed).

The EGA2.CPI file is similar to the EGA.CPI file, except that the two files contain different code pages. EGA2.CPI contains the following: MS-DOS 6.2 includes new country settings in COUNTRY.SYS that use the new keyboards and code pages. COUNTRY.SYS contains the following countries with their supported code pages:

    Country or language    Country       Character sets
                           code
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Greece                 030           869, 737
    Iceland                354           861, 850
    Romania                040           852, 850
    Turkish                090           857, 850
				

You use the KEYBRD2.SYS and EGA2.CPI files just as you would KEYBOARD.SYS and EGA.CPI. These files can be used in any combination.

For example, to use the new Icelandic settings, carry out the following steps:

1. Add the following commands to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

      REM ICELAND SETTINGS
      MODE CON CP PREPARE=((861) C:\DOS\EGA2.CPI)
      MODE CON CP SELECT=861
      KEYB IS,,C:\DOS\KEYBRD2.SYS
   						

2. If you also need support for codepage 850 (Multilingual), add the following commands to your CONFIG.SYS file:

      REM ICELAND SETTINGS
      COUNTRY=354,861,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
      DEVICE=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(,,2)
   						

   Add the following commands to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

      REM ICELAND SETTINGS
      NLSFUNC
      MODE CON CP PREPARE=((861,850) C:\DOS\EGA2.CPI)
      MODE CON CP SELECT=861
      KEYB IS,,C:\DOS\KEYBRD2.SYS
   						

3. Restart your computer.