IBMKBD.SYS

This driver provides support for the keyboard.

IBMKBD.SYS is one of the two separate drivers for the keyboard physical device driver. IBMKBD.SYS is referred as the "device-dependent driver" which handles the hardware interrupts and keboard hardware commands. This driver also passes notification of a hot plug and scan codes to KBDBASE.SYS (The device-independent driver).

Version

Date	Version	Size	Comments
2011-10-18 16:22	10.163	8,774 bytes	Mensys / IBM Keyboard Device Driver

CONFIG.SYS

Provides support for your keyboard. Some tools e.g. the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander form Perez Computing or the Process Commander from Stardock are replacing KBDBASE.SYS by their own version. Whenever you deinstall these tools manually be sure to revert to the original KBDBASE.SYS.

It is also reported that Process Commander fails with Warp 4.5 versions (WSeB and Warp4 Fixpak 13 or higher)

BASEDEV=IBMKBD.SYS <parameters>

Parameter:

/NONE

Assumes a keyboard is installed even if a keyboard is not attached. Starts OS/2 even when no keyboard is attached. Useful for unsupervised operation.

/NUMON

Turns the numeric keys on your keyboard on. This switch works only on some configuratins, it depends on what a keyboard you have and what Codepage you use.

/NUMOFF

Turns the numeric keys on your keyboard off.

TIP: For the mostly sold so called 'Win95-Keyboards' there are two replacement drivers: One by Robert Muchsel, Release is Ver 2.00 (winkey02.zip), or (w95k210.zip)

TIP: By Kovacs Istvan: If you try BASEDEV=IMBKBD.SYS /NUMON numlock could turned on like with the utility 'jshifter'. Works only with some releases of the IBMKBD.SYS delivered with Warp. According to the mails I've got it seems that the parameter doesn't work on nearly most keyboards, (but one some) so you have still to use 'JShifter' (jshif162.zip), or 'numlock' by Peter Engels (numl_on.zip).

TIP: If you prefer a so called Dvorak keyboard layout (a keyboard which tends to arrange the characters more ergonomic than the qwerty type - which was a need when constructing mechanical typewriters at the end of the 19.th century - since Fixpak 8 for Warp 4 (maybe earlier, but this was the first time I was aware of its existance) go to your keyboard settings in the System Setup folder and simply select Dvorak (for left and righthanded !, but only in English). Now you only need a keyboard with a Dvorak layout (or one of these old but beautiful IBM keyboards with a 'klick' and 'solid as a rock', here you can pull the caps and place em where you want). This is another new goodie in OS/2 IBM never speaks of.

Platform Support:

OS/2 2.x	OS/2 3.0	OS/2 4.0	OS/2 4.5x
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Source Code

The source code of this file is included on the IBM Developer Connection Device Driver Kits for OS/2. It can not be open sourced, but the source code is available for IBM DDK customers and a free/paid binaries can be released.