Keyboard Layout in Vice (Commodore 64)

[RedNifre]

I'd like to use the Dvorak US keyboard layout with the Vice Commodore 64 emulator. The emulatior has a "symbolic" setting for this, but the keyboard is still QWERTY. I already changed the layout in the config and I'm able to use the correct layout in the command line interface.
I suspect that EmulationStation might have a keyboard layout independent of what you get in the terminal, but I don't see a way to change it.
Is there a way to change the keyboard layout of the Commodore 64? Or would I need to install Raspbian and have EmulationStation inherit the right layout from there?

[mitu]

@RedNifre said in Keyboard Layout in Vice (Commodore 64):

Or would I need to install Raspbian and have EmulationStation inherit the right layout from there?

RetroPie is based on Raspbian Lite image, so there's not need for an additional download/install, you can just exit Emulationstation and do your configuration from the terminal (or if you prefer a SSH connection).

[dudleydes]

@RedNifre You can find a key mappings (.vkm) file for a Dvorak keyboard layout at https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout.

[RedNifre]

@mitu Thanks, but the keyboard layout is already correct in the terminal. When the Vice emulator is set to "symbolic" it should use the layout of the host system. I don't know why that either doesn't work or why it gets the US layout from somewhere.

@dudleydes Thanks, but that vkm doesn't work, it just randomizes all keys (not even the enter key is on the enter key). While it should be possible to use a positional layout to greate a dvorak layout manually, having the "symbolic" setting work i.e. just use the keyboard layout of the host system would be a more elegant solution anyway, that would also work for every layout.

Regarding EmulationStation, is there any place where you can enter text right in EmulationStation to see if it uses the same layout as the terminal? Both the direct terminal as well as the RetroPie Script that you can launch from emulation station use the right layout, but I wonder if EmulationStation itself ignores that because it doesn't actually use a keyboard anywhere.

[mitu]

@RedNifre said in Keyboard Layout in Vice (Commodore 64):

Regarding EmulationStation, is there any place where you can enter text right in EmulationStation to see if it uses the same layout as the terminal?

Press Select on any game entry and choose to edit Metadata, you can edit the game's name, path, etc. with the keyboard.

[RedNifre]

Interesting, editing the metadata with a keyboard doesn't work at all (pressing keys does nothing) so I can't tell which layout EmulationStation actually uses.

[mitu]

@RedNifre You have to press enter or A to get to the input in edit mode.

[RedNifre]

@mitu Ah, thank you. I was able to type and can confirm that EmulationStation does in fact use the correct keyboard layout. So the problem is that the "symbolic" layout in Vice is broken on RetroPie (it works on Ubuntu). I guess this is something that needs to be fixed in Vice so I'll see if I can find their forum somewhere and ask them directly.
Thask you very much for your help so far!

[mitu]

@RedNifre It depends on how it's compiled on Ubuntu. On Retropie, it uses SDL2 for the UI (as Emulationstation), on Ubuntu I assume it uses GTK3.
If you want to dig more and submit a bug report to the Vice project, you can try enabling only the SDL2 UI when compiling Vice and see if you can reproduce the problem also on Ubuntu.