[Simh] LK461 keyboard

[Peter Allan]

I am trying to set up a system that gives me the "VAXstation experience"
using simh on a computer running Linux. Everything works fine except the
keyboard, which is an LK461 - essential to have the proper keypad and
function keys!

What I have is:
- A computer with an LK461 keyboard connected via a PS/2 style connector,
Dell flat screen monitor and a three button Compaq/Logitech mouse.
- I am running CentOS 5.7 (a free rebuilt version of RedHat 5).

I am using simh 3.8 to emulate a microVAX 3900 running VMS 7.3 and 5.5-2.

I boot Linux in console mode, start up simh and boot VMS, then connect to
the emulated microVAX with the command

   X -query <name_of_emulated_computer> -from <name_of_real_computer>

This starts X and brings up an xdmcp login screen which lets me log into
the emulated microVAX and have the full DECwindows experience - session
manager, DECterm and anything else I care to start up.

The only problem is that the keypad and function keys on the LK461 keyboard
do not work. Does anyone know how to make them work just like a proper
VAXstation running VMS?

I have been reading around the Linux setxkbmap command and associated
fiiles, but it looks like a lot of work to set things up from scratch. I
know about the existence of the digital_vndr/lk files, but my attempt to
use these have only made the keyboard unusable. No doubt this is me getting
things wrong, but I am rather stuck at present. I have googled things like
"lk461 linux vms" which gives some interesting results, but nothing that
has answered my question of how to make the LK461 keyboard work properly
with VMS when connected via X. I have also seen statements along the lines
of "recent versions of Fedora will recognise an LK keyboard". However, I
have tried them and, with my setup at least, they don't.

Has anyone else done this or feels they can point me in the right direction?

All help gratefully received.

Peter Allan
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