The Sun keyboards are available in two basic layouts for a particular language, the UNIX layout and the PC Layout. In bahamat's photos below, the top photo of the Sun Type 6 has the PC layout and, below, the Sun Type 7 has the UNIX layout. @aissacf is correct; the Type 6 and 7 keyboards with the UNIX layout are exactly the same and the Type 6 and 7 keyboards with the PC layout are also exactly.
Hello, everyone! Although I am still battling a long-term health problem, I am slowly getting back some strength and Linux is good for my spirits, even when my questions seem to spawn only more questions. Although the topic of key mapping has popped up numerous times over the years in JustLinux.com, I am finding conflicting recommendations, many of which refer to XFree86, although I realize that many commands and formats are the same with X.Org, but some configuration methods with X.Org have changed with time. I've also come across numerous references to people with various varieties of keyboards ending up having their unique keyboards show up in 'xorg.conf' as generic 'pc' keyboards.
Apparently, the Debian team is working to address this issue, and I am sure that the move from XFree86 in 'Sarge' to X.org in 'Etch' was a major technical challenge, but I am still excited and enthusiastic about switching to Debian. A couple of years ago, I inquired about using a Sun Type-6 keyboard with SuSE Linux on a Pentium-4-based computer. (At the time that I made my inquiry, I had not even realized that the Sun keyboard had an 8-plug mini-DIN connector that was totally incompatible with the PS/2 port on my computer and that a Y-adapter to use the Type-6 keyboard and mouse I'd been offered was/is about $175 US -- which hardly made the Sun keyboard and mouse 'free'! I recently purchased a refurbished USB Sun Type-6 keyboard for $5, and already had an optical, USB, three-button (sans scroll-wheel) Hewlett-Packard mouse working with Linux. I've gotten used to a UNIX keyboard layout, however -- but I received a keyboard with a Windows layout (the main difference being that Caps Lock and Control are switched).
I kept hitting Caps Lock instead of Control and I finally contacted the on-line vendor, who kindly sent me a new, boxed set of a USB Sun Type-7 (UNIX layout) keyboard and Type-7 optical mouse (which is essentially the same as most scroll-wheel USB mice where the scroll wheel is also the middle mouse button if you enable three-button mouse emulation in X). When I asked in 2006 about using the Sun Type-6 keyboard, I was told to use 'sunkeymap', but I had no idea how to generate a keymap file, how to link to it, or that the 'setxkbmap' command existed.
I had, however, figured out that the keyboard would not plug into my computer! From what I have gathered after spending time reading in JustLinux.com, I can use the 'setxkbmap' command (and others) to generate and store a keymap file for the Sun Type-7 keyboard, but some people state that this approach is 'the old way.' I don't know if there are any repositories on the Internet of preconfigured keymap files for particular keyboards, but I suspect not. (The keymap file that I generated was a bit of a mess and using key combinations, such as shift, control, and the meta key yielded a rather unwieldy mess, I must admit.) I ran across 'linkEAD' in O'Reilly's Linux Desktop Hacks, which was published in 2005, but am pleased to see that my three-DVD installation discs for Debian GNU/Linux 4.0r3 ('Etch') include a Debian package for 'linkEAD'.
I am reinstalling Debian again, this time trying to use XFCE 4 without any dependencies on Gnome or KDE packages, but the effort may turn out to be more of a learning exercise than accomplishing a goal. (XFCE 4 does not support single-clicking desktop icons, the KDE and UNIX default, nor does it allow one to 'lasso' multiple icons to move, delete, or copy them. Such issues are minor, but relate to habits that I have developed over several years. I am hoping I can work around these two issues, but I suspect that I am 'in over my head.' ) I also have to enable 'xdm' and some other features of Debian and Linux. I need to have X start automatically (no big deal) and to have the shut-down option in XFCE do more than exit me from XFCE and X.
Naruto Shippuuden – It has been two and a half years since Naruto Uzumaki left Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village, for intense training following events which fueled his desire to be stronger. 
Come whatever may, Naruto will carry on with the fight for what is important to him, even at the expense of his own body, in the continuation of the saga about the boy who wishes to become Hok. Although Naruto is older and sinister events loom on the horizon, he has changed little in personality—still rambunctious and childish—though he is now far more confident and possesses an even greater determination to protect his friends and home. Now Akatsuki, the mysterious organization of elite rogue ninja, is closing in on their grand plan which may threaten the safety of the entire shinobi world.
Chenda instrumental music. I also need to enable the other two options that the shut-down icon in XFCE display, install and run some applications besides Mousepad, nano, and vi(m) -- Web browsing, e-mail, and OpenOffice.org might be useful -- and determine why the two icons on the desktop (for home and filesystem) suddenly vanished last night after I finally got X.org to recognize my mouse. I am going to give 'linkEAD' a try to see if I can configure at least some of the Sun keys to function, but I realize that I also need to modify 'xorg.conf'.
- Author: admin
- Category: Category
The Sun keyboards are available in two basic layouts for a particular language, the UNIX layout and the PC Layout. In bahamat's photos below, the top photo of the Sun Type 6 has the PC layout and, below, the Sun Type 7 has the UNIX layout. @aissacf is correct; the Type 6 and 7 keyboards with the UNIX layout are exactly the same and the Type 6 and 7 keyboards with the PC layout are also exactly.
Hello, everyone! Although I am still battling a long-term health problem, I am slowly getting back some strength and Linux is good for my spirits, even when my questions seem to spawn only more questions. Although the topic of key mapping has popped up numerous times over the years in JustLinux.com, I am finding conflicting recommendations, many of which refer to XFree86, although I realize that many commands and formats are the same with X.Org, but some configuration methods with X.Org have changed with time. I've also come across numerous references to people with various varieties of keyboards ending up having their unique keyboards show up in 'xorg.conf' as generic 'pc' keyboards.
Apparently, the Debian team is working to address this issue, and I am sure that the move from XFree86 in 'Sarge' to X.org in 'Etch' was a major technical challenge, but I am still excited and enthusiastic about switching to Debian. A couple of years ago, I inquired about using a Sun Type-6 keyboard with SuSE Linux on a Pentium-4-based computer. (At the time that I made my inquiry, I had not even realized that the Sun keyboard had an 8-plug mini-DIN connector that was totally incompatible with the PS/2 port on my computer and that a Y-adapter to use the Type-6 keyboard and mouse I'd been offered was/is about $175 US -- which hardly made the Sun keyboard and mouse 'free'! I recently purchased a refurbished USB Sun Type-6 keyboard for $5, and already had an optical, USB, three-button (sans scroll-wheel) Hewlett-Packard mouse working with Linux. I've gotten used to a UNIX keyboard layout, however -- but I received a keyboard with a Windows layout (the main difference being that Caps Lock and Control are switched).
I kept hitting Caps Lock instead of Control and I finally contacted the on-line vendor, who kindly sent me a new, boxed set of a USB Sun Type-7 (UNIX layout) keyboard and Type-7 optical mouse (which is essentially the same as most scroll-wheel USB mice where the scroll wheel is also the middle mouse button if you enable three-button mouse emulation in X). When I asked in 2006 about using the Sun Type-6 keyboard, I was told to use 'sunkeymap', but I had no idea how to generate a keymap file, how to link to it, or that the 'setxkbmap' command existed.
I had, however, figured out that the keyboard would not plug into my computer! From what I have gathered after spending time reading in JustLinux.com, I can use the 'setxkbmap' command (and others) to generate and store a keymap file for the Sun Type-7 keyboard, but some people state that this approach is 'the old way.' I don't know if there are any repositories on the Internet of preconfigured keymap files for particular keyboards, but I suspect not. (The keymap file that I generated was a bit of a mess and using key combinations, such as shift, control, and the meta key yielded a rather unwieldy mess, I must admit.) I ran across 'linkEAD' in O'Reilly's Linux Desktop Hacks, which was published in 2005, but am pleased to see that my three-DVD installation discs for Debian GNU/Linux 4.0r3 ('Etch') include a Debian package for 'linkEAD'.
I am reinstalling Debian again, this time trying to use XFCE 4 without any dependencies on Gnome or KDE packages, but the effort may turn out to be more of a learning exercise than accomplishing a goal. (XFCE 4 does not support single-clicking desktop icons, the KDE and UNIX default, nor does it allow one to 'lasso' multiple icons to move, delete, or copy them. Such issues are minor, but relate to habits that I have developed over several years. I am hoping I can work around these two issues, but I suspect that I am 'in over my head.' ) I also have to enable 'xdm' and some other features of Debian and Linux. I need to have X start automatically (no big deal) and to have the shut-down option in XFCE do more than exit me from XFCE and X.
Naruto Shippuuden – It has been two and a half years since Naruto Uzumaki left Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village, for intense training following events which fueled his desire to be stronger. Come whatever may, Naruto will carry on with the fight for what is important to him, even at the expense of his own body, in the continuation of the saga about the boy who wishes to become Hok. Although Naruto is older and sinister events loom on the horizon, he has changed little in personality—still rambunctious and childish—though he is now far more confident and possesses an even greater determination to protect his friends and home. Now Akatsuki, the mysterious organization of elite rogue ninja, is closing in on their grand plan which may threaten the safety of the entire shinobi world.
Chenda instrumental music. I also need to enable the other two options that the shut-down icon in XFCE display, install and run some applications besides Mousepad, nano, and vi(m) -- Web browsing, e-mail, and OpenOffice.org might be useful -- and determine why the two icons on the desktop (for home and filesystem) suddenly vanished last night after I finally got X.org to recognize my mouse. I am going to give 'linkEAD' a try to see if I can configure at least some of the Sun keys to function, but I realize that I also need to modify 'xorg.conf'.