Notices

That's the "rightfull.xkbd" layout if I'm not mistaken... yes, that's exactly what I see, but it doesn't work, pressing keys doesn't do anything...
Launching Rubybox from terminal gives me this output:

~ $ rbox
DOSBox version 0.73
Copyright 2002-2009 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/user/.rubybox/Games/commander_keen_-_episode_4.conf
ALSA lib seq.c:935snd_seq_open_noupdate) Unknown SEQ hw
ALSA:Can't open sequencer
MIDI:Opened device:none
MAPPER: Loading mapper settings from /home/user/.rubybox/.mappers/mappercsa.txt
X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
killall: dosboxbin: no process killed

I guess "Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!" is the part that tells me something is wrong with the virtual keyboard, but I don't know how to use this piece of information...
Launching xkbd from terminal (no rubybox or dosbox involved) gives me the exact same error, except that upon exit it kills my D-pad and makes impossible to "click and run" or "click and select" using the touchscreen in any application (on a stylus click the whole line I'm on is selected... weird...)

If it is of any help I'm using an N800 with the latest diablo release, installed apps mostly from Extras (except latest Abiword and of course Rubybox and Dosbox) and using Qole EasyDebian (even if I don't think this can do anything to the system itself...)

I honestly have no idea on what's happening there, JustNick.

First time hearing about your problem in quite awhile.

We all encountered the exact same thing you're describing, but that was like a year and a half ago.

Oh, and the "Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!" is nothing. We all get the same message and it's completely unimportant. Don't even worry about that.

Best I can offer is to uninstall Xkbd, Ruby, Rubybox, and Dosbox. Keep Unzip if you have that though.

Then head over to Ukki's page and fire up the one click install. I'm thinking maybe you picked up an older version of Xkbd when you grabbed it from the extras repository.
Rubybox

Try that and post back when you have the chance.

Cheers.

Thanks Addison, I'll check the Xkbd version I have installed and see if there's a newer one around

Uhm, the xkbd package in Rubybox repository is xkbd_0.8.15m-2_armel.deb, that's exactly the one downloadable from http://pupnik.de/xkbd.html
Oh, well, I'll just remove everything ruby/dosbox related and start over

Bunanson seems to have the same problem on his end with Xkbd as well.

Please post back if you find a solution.

I haven't had a chance to test DOSBox much yet, but after reading this thread though I thought I'd give it try. I've found that I've got the same problem as JustNick on my N800. I can't even get the D-pad directionals to work properly in games. I've run 'dosbox -startmapper' and redefined the directional keys,....but nothing. I've run 'keyb nokia.sys us' thinking that this might help,...nada. I've found that Addison's keyboard does work with RubBox but I still can't get RubyBox to load a custom mapper.txt file and have it work. BTW, JustNick.....to get that little XKBD keyboard to work, you have to tap the CAPS key first before you do any input. Addison,....I'm guessing yours is working since you've got both the new and old DOSBox programs on your N800. I'm seriously thinking about deleting the latest DOSBox and going back to the previous version to see if things are hunky dory again.

Good news: remapping the D-pad works
In an active session of Dosbox (i used the one I created to launch windows 3.1 with rubybox) ctrl+F1 will start the mapper, just remove the printscreen and the right alt bindings (they are mapped with the Up and Right directions of the Dpad) and then assign the four directions to the four arrows key.
Bad news: you can't save this, I don't know why (probably Dosbox points to a location that needs root privileges to be written), so this works only in an active session...
I just tried once though, so it could be possible that with some fine tuning of the dosbox config file one could be able to point to a different location where to save the mapping... or I was just lucky and I won't be able to make it work a second time

Well I just got RubyBox to work with the latest DOSBox. I'm able to use my custom mapper.txt file....woohoo! (My redefined functions keys don't work properly so I still have to fix the function keys like javispedro suggested,...but that's no biggie.) Plus the directional keys now work too. How? I had a backup of '/usr/share/dosbox'. That directory was gone after installing the latest DOSBox version. But copying that directory back now fixes the problems with RubyBox and DOSBox, plus games seem to be running normal again instead of being so s-l-o-w. I don't know how or why this fixes it, but it does. It's probably not a proper fix but it will do for now.

D'oh! the small keyboard killed my Dpad again...

Not in 0.73... I've configured it to save it to ~/apps/mapper.txt, which is user writable. (Unless you override it in the config file!)

I think this is more a scancode-or-keysym issue. There's an option in DOSBox Prefs.txt called "usescancodes": try switching that on and off and remapping.
Nokia.sys will do nothing here, it's just for N810 FN-keys.

I will provide a debug-enabled build of DOSBox later this week (I hope).

The d-pad keys work with the default configuration for me (at least in QBASIC). And I can assure you I have no /usr/share/dosbox/ directory (WHAT do you have there?).

I think I'm going crazy...
Small summary of all the little problems:
1) XKBD launched from terminal or .desktop file works if CAPS is ON (thanks for the hint pushwall), but kills Dpad upon exit and makes impossible to "click and select" or "click and run" in some apps
2) Rubybox seems to forget settings previously modified (thus making impossible to proceed by trial and error in fine tuning Dosbox)
3) there are some xkbd keys with weird bindings, ALT is recognized as SHIFT and ENTER as DOWN
4) the Dpad UP is interpreted as a Prtscrn, the LEFT as RIGHT ALT, the other 2 directions as "unknown keys" and binding them only works for one session

I'm starting to think my N800 is possessed