[LINUX5250] Diskless worstations and keymapping problem

[Projet GPAO <projet-gpao@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

First of all, I'd like to thank the people involved in the tn5250 project. I'm 
working with tn5250 0.16.5 under Mandrake 9.1 since a few months and I have 
to say that it is a great soft.

I chose a mini Linux distribution called Trinux 
(http://trinux.sourceforge.net/) to turn old PC into tn5250 diskless 
workstations.
 
To sum up, Trinux boots from a single floppy then loads packages from web. 
When Trinux is launched, it gets an IP address thanks to DHCP, and loads 
additional packages (such as ssh) via ftp. Then Trinux is automatically 
connected to a ssh server under Mandrake (my own workstation) to be able to 
use tn5250 installed on the Mandrake. With a single floppy, any PC in the 
shop can be automatically turned into a tn5250 station. I think it's a good 
way to use old Pentium75 with a floppy and 16mo.

So, what's the problem? The problem is that I really have to get a key map as 
close as possible to the Client Access soft. That is to say F13 to F24 with 
shift F9 to shift F12, ESC as âattentionâ (Control_a), Left control key as 
Contol_x and so on.

If xt5250 is launched on my Mandrake, no problem. If it's in a real console, I 
do not have access to the F21 to F24 keys and âattentionâ is C-a. So I 
modified my keyboard layout (keycode 1 = Control_a Escape instead of keycode 
1 = Escape Escape and string F24 = "\033+" instead of string F24 = 
"\033[38~") and I load it with loadkeys. Then it's ok, but remmeber, we're 
here still on Mandrake.

The real problem is with the trinux diskless workstations. I create a binary 
keymap file with my customized key map thanks to the dumpkmap (a tool 
included in busybox that's used in a lot of tiny distros such as Trinux) and 
load it with loadkmap. Then, guess what, ESC is âattentionâ, no problem, 
but 
F21 to F24 are still unusable with shift F9/F12 even if they are usable with 
âESC(â âESC)â âESC_â and âESC+â. To me it's no big deal but the 
boss said âwe 
can't go with your proposal if you can't manage to get a client access-like 
keymapâ. So, I go âno problem, I'll figure it outâ.

Finally, it may be useful to know that I'm using a French âazertyâ 
keyboard. 
If someone can help me, please let me know. I think I'm going to lose 
patience ;)

Cheers,

Mathieu