Sun Unix Type * Keyboards

Gdan

Gdan

This is a quick question. It might seem silly/stupid/whatever, and maybe it is. But how well do those old Sun Unix Type 5/6/7 keyboards work with FreeBSD 11 out of the box? Like the stop/again/props/undo/copy/find/cut keys? I love my IBM rubberdome PS/2 keyboard and I'll always keep it around. But it seems rather silly to have Windows keys when I haven't used Windows since the mid-90s. Thank you friends.
 
I can't answer your question, but would like to say that I flatly refuse to use a keyboard with a MS-Windows logo on it and have not done so since long before they came out. I stick with model Ms or newer custom keyboards. You can get anything nowadays. Check out this thread: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/57055/
 
Yeah the older IBM model Ms are great stuff but they sure have gotten expensive. I have been slacking off at hitting up thrift stores lately and I need to get back at it. I just like the idea of a Unix-specific keyboard. And they are really good looking as an added benefit. It looks like there is some discussion of Sun keyboards in that thread though, which is promising.
 
I have the keyboard for which you speak of - attached to a Sunblade 100 running 8. On the back, it says Model Type 6 USB. I haven't tried plugging it directly into a BSD box, although I could. I am afraid of what might happen!
 
Gdan said:
it seems rather silly to have Windows keys when I haven't used Windows
Click to expand...
They are good keys! E.g. I've mapped them as Mod keys for x11-wm/dwm, or on another machine I've mapped one of them to be the hot key for VirtualBox etc.
I don't like to "waste" good Alt and Ctrl keys for such purposes.
 
Gdan said:
This is a quick question. It might seem silly/stupid/whatever, and maybe it is. But how well do those old Sun Unix Type 5/6/7 keyboards work with FreeBSD 11 out of the box? Like the stop/again/props/undo/copy/find/cut keys?
Click to expand...

The Type 5 keyboard only came with an 8-pin mini-DIN connector (not PS/2 !) and speaks a relatively simple serial protocol ; you'll need to build an adapter for it (unless you're running on old Sun hardware, obviously). Check the Deskthority forum for that.

Type 6 and above come with USB connectors and will work out of the box (I believe there were Type 6 with the mini-DIN but haven't seen one). The Sun keys are either reported by xev as such (SunProps...) or the native X keysym (XF86Cut, Stop->Cancel, Again->Redo, Undo...).

Make sure to load the proper keymap when starting X :
Code: 
setxkbmap -model sun_type6_usb -layout us -option "compose:menu"

Running here with a Type 7; also tried both a Type 4 and a Type 5 with a home-made adapter.
 
Huge thanks for this sparky.... I've wanted a SUN KB for a long time now. Now I can safely order one without wasting my money.
 
Gdan said:
Huge thanks for this sparky.... I've wanted a SUN KB for a long time now. Now I can safely order one without wasting my money.
Click to expand...

Please let us know how it goes, I might be interested as well. I dislike the large size of the SUN keyboards, but they are resilient, solid and have excellent feedback. I currently have a Pok3r (with this horrible LED thing that's always on and wasn't mentioned anywhere...) with a good feedback, but not as good as old-style SUN KB.
 
Interesting! Never thought there were UNIX keyboards. Additional keys look awesome and very l33t. However I looked on ebay and found rather small supply of new keyboards. And all of them are in USA. And rubber domes are not clicky at all.
 
abishai said:
Interesting! Never thought there were UNIX keyboards. Additional keys look awesome and very l33t. However I looked on ebay and found rather small supply of new keyboards. And all of them are in USA. And rubber domes are not clicky at all.
Click to expand...

The Unicomp 122 might be of interest to you.
 
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