[OpenBIOS] [PATCH] Adds get-key-map to keyboard node

[Programmingkid]

On Dec 3, 2012, at 4:06 PM, Mark Cave-Ayland wrote:

> On 03/12/12 20:51, Programmingkid wrote:
> 
>>> Are you sure about this? I'd be surprised if there wasn't already some
>>> kind of workaround in place. As mentioned before, OpenBIOS is designed
>>> to be able to run on real hardware with minimal modifications and so
>>> I'm not greatly keen to do this.
>> 
>> On real hardware? I'm not too sure about that. This page seems to
>> disagree as well:
>> http://www.openfirmware.info/OpenBIOS
>> 
>> "Do not try to put OpenBIOS in a real boot ROM, it will not work and may
>> damage your hardware!"
> 
> You missed the part about minimal modifications; the hardware initialisation routines need to be changed (to probe directly rather than taking information supplied via the QEMU API) but we know from recent emails on the list that some people are actually using OpenBIOS in this way.
> 
>>> Have you asked the developers on the qemu/qemu-ppc mailing lists how
>>> to emulate the command key on a non-Mac?
>> 
>> No I haven't. All the PowerPC developers are busy making some target
>> called P series. I really doubt they have the time or interest in
>> emulating the command key.
> 
> Sure they are now, but I'm reasonably confident that at least a couple of them have worked on the Mac emulation in the past. Even if they don't know the answer, they will be able to point you directly to the part of the code you need to modify, and if a patch is required, exactly what you would need to do in order for it to be accepted. But without asking, we don't even know anything yet.

I asked the list. I would like the command key sent to the guest OS also, but that would probably require a patch sent to the QEMU list. Even if one was sent, there is no guarantee it would be accepted. There is also the problem of requiring users to upgrade their version of QEMU to use the patch. There are still a lot of people who are just fine using versions of QEMU from one to two years ago. Using the patch as is would mean everyone would be able to enjoy the patch - not just the latest alpha testers. 

Would you settle for a patch that checks to see if the command key is down and also maps the control key to the command? It would mean both backwards and forward compatibility. If someone changed QEMU to detect the command key, this patch would still work unaltered.