I decided to get an SL-6000W since they are available again. I was slightly surprised to see it had a different Japanese keyboard layout from my 6000L. I suppose that's to be expected in hindsight, but I didn't see it coming.

Anyway, I installed the guylhem ROM and it mapped all the keys to their US positions. It's very confusing. I guess most other alternative ROMs probably use the US layout too.

Fellow 6000W owners, how have you dealt with this?

Wow. That is awesome that you got the 6000W. I am really thinking about getting one. did you order yours from Streamline? How do you like it? Have you had any problems with it yet? What is the problem with the Keyboard mapping? Do you mean that the keys have Japanese letters on them?

-Mark

I ordered from Streamline. It was a little slow to get here, but otherwise a pleasant business experience (I don't blame Streamline, since it has to be special ordered from Japan, and Stephen was very communicative about the progress). Functionally, it's the same as my 6000L, so I already like it a lot. I haven't had gotten the bluetooth going yet, but that's mostly because I've had almost no time. I'm looking forward to having bluetooth AND a microdrive when I take trips without needing the sleeve (or putting something else in the sleeve, hmm maybe I need a 2nd microdrive.

Anyway, back to the topic, the issue I'm describing is best illustrated with a picture:

http://www.skill-engineering.com/zaurus/im...00/rimg0201.jpg

The keys on the Japanese model are labelled completely differently from the US model, but if you install a ROM based on the USA version, all the keys function as if they were in the US positions, so, for example, the key labelled ":" actually produces an "@".

The only thing that i can think of (not very original) is the overlay. But it would have to be very thin other wise it would interfere with the key presses. If one could find colored transperancy film, that would work.

It is also interesting that the symbols that are accesed by fn key are in blue as opposed to orange on the SL-6000L.

The other thing is to just modify the mapping. I kinda like some of the keys that some things are mapped too. It is really like to have a dedicated ( - ) hyphen key like on the clamshells. It seems that there is only one shift key on the 6000W. there are not many differences though. Just a few keys.

When you installed Guylhem's rom did Blue tooth not work? i believe that he already has the Blue tooth drivers installed.

I don't know, I switched to Sharp USA ROM, which is what I used on my other 6000. After a few hours of keyhelper hacking, I think I've got a usable configuration now.

But I like the overlay idea too, if I'm find a way to go that route I'd rather make something even better than the default US layout.

Looking at the keyboard picture (unless it uses seperate keycaps)... maybe it is available as a spare part?

Read this:
http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...934&#entry78934

Greg

Thanks for the reply. I had the same thought, but Streamline told me Sharp USA doesn't sell spare parts anymore.

(they require you to send the Zaurus to them for warentee or repair issues, but since mine is Japanese they won't even touch it.)

*sigh*

But I've come up with a satisfactory layout with keyhelper. It's not perfect, but most of the symbols match what's printed, the ones that don't I'm attempting to memorize, every key from a standard US keyboard is available somewhere, and the ones I use most are easy to access. I think it will work fine until I figure out how to make an overlay, then I'll come up with something even better.

For ppl who were asking about bluetooth, I got it setup with Bluez. Some scripts guylhem has on his site saved a lot of time. It's basically compatible with the setup I used for my Socket CF card, except for the initialization, so it's all well and good. Woohoo, built in Bluetooth!

The helpful scripts:
http://www.externe.net/zaurus/bluetooth-audio-sco/

DrWowe, could you post your keyhelper config file on here. I am seriously thinking of getting a 6000W. This would save me some serious hacking time. Also, The rom that ships with the 6000W, is it pretty much the same as the english. Did streamline convert it to english for you. I know it is easiest to just flash to a english rom but i am curious.

I found another way. If I copy the Japanese ROM version of /home/QtPalmtop/etc/keycode.tbl into the US ROM, then I get the exact Japanese key layout. I think I like this way, so I'm posting that file for you.

Streamline will convert for you, but I asked them not to. I did it myself, and it took less than 10 minutes following the directions. What you get is a Japanese ROM using English i18n text. However, there is still a lot of Japanese stuff on the machine, like all the input methods, and some strings that aren't translated. Overall I think I prefer to stick with the US ROM.

After this, I decided to just copy the NAND image from my 6000L to 6000W, so now I don't have to start over, I have all my software and files from the old one.

So I assume it works both ways. If you copy the keycode.tbl from the 6000L to the 6000W do you get the english layout with all the 6000L keymappings?

Also, you said that you were making your own layout. Are you still working on this? If you are i would like the keyhelper.xml file. I am attempting to learn keyhelper and these files for differnt Z's really help.

Have you thought more about making a layover for the 6000W?

Right, if you stick with the Japanese ROM that would work.


OK, it's got some quirks right now but it's pretty intuitive to me. I'll post it soon as an example of keyhelper. However, I think what I'm ultimately going to do is create my own keycode.tbl based on combining the US and JP versions along with my own modifications. I'll need to do this because I just bought a Bluetooth keyboard and keyhelper will screw that up.



That would be great, but I don't know how. I would want it to be plastic, look nice, and fit well. If you have knowledge of this stuff I'm all ears.