Locked out of my IBM PC XT keyboard

[Zobeid Zuma]

Well, this is kind of embarrassing. I've had this keyboard for a couple of years, and it cleaned up pretty well and is fully functional. It was dirty when I got it, but I can't help thinking somebody had already worked on the insides, because even the foam seems like new.

I got the Soarer converter (not built into the keyboard), and I cleaned it up, tinkered, remapped it, tinkered some more. Then put it on the shelf for A While. And now. . . Now I'd like to try remapping it again, but. . . I don't remember how I did it!

I'm almost certain that I flashed the firmware using Flip, which I've done with almost all my programmable keyboards. I'm less sure about where I got the firmware file that I flashed to it. I thought I used QMK for all my boards, but now I'm not finding any files on my hard drive related to the XT. Maybe I got the hex file from some other source, from online, and then forgot?

But that's not my pressing problem at this moment. The real problem is, I can't remember how to reset the board to flash it with Flip! If I had programmed any key combination to reset it, I've long since forgotten what it was. I tried holding Esc while plugging it in, but that didn't work, and I tried holding Space-B, which didn't work any better. I've tried a number of other combinations in my Fn layer, and I'm not getting anywhere.

If I had physical access to the Teensy board, maybe I could reset it, but it's encased in the USB plug assembly, and I don't know if-or-how I could get into that without messing it up.

Any suggestions?

Incidentally. . . The XT keyboard has become a sort of not-really-logical obsession for me. When my school got their very first computers, they were a pair of brand new IBM PCs with green screens. As I had recently gotten my own Atari 800XL at the time, I had nothing but scorn for the costly, over-hyped and much more limited (from my perspective) IBMs at school. However, I couldn't be oblivious to those fantastic keyboards. It was the one thing about them that I really loved. I especially loved those F-keys on the left!

Today the XT keyboard is a challenge that I keep coming back to. I love the build and feel, hate the weird and awkward layout. I keep thinking I could find a way to make it work for me on a modern system, if I'm clever enough, and can just crack the code, remap it just right, etc.

[AJM]

I personally have only used my converters with the "traditional" Soarer tools (no Flip, QMK or whatnot): viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2510&start=

But I guess you couldn't remember what you have done so wrongly.

[MMcM]

What does the keyboard say when it enumerates to the OS? That might remind you want firmware you put on it.

Did you confirm that it isn't just running Soarer's by trying sctool boot?

[Zobeid Zuma]

uhh. . . I found a couple of files on my hard drive suggesting that I at least tried to tinker with Soarer's in the past. Am taking another look at it now. I just got through trying to compile sctools on my system (Ubuntu) and got a puzzling error back.

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$ ./autogen.sh && make && make install
./autogen.sh: line 2: ./bootstrap: No such file or directory
autoreconf: 'configure.ac' or 'configure.in' is required

Is “sctools-master/hidapi” supposed to be an empty folder?

[Bjerrk]

I know it's not a direct answer to your question, but I seem to recall that I just used the precompiled binaries (on a relatively recent version of Ubuntu).

[Zobeid Zuma]

I know it's not a direct answer to your question, but I seem to recall that I just used the precompiled binaries (on a relatively recent version of Ubuntu).

Where did you get those? I only found source code on Github here → https://github.com/thentenaar/sctools

[MMcM]

Is “sctools-master/hidapi” supposed to be an empty folder?

I believe that hidapi is a submodule. Did you do this?

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git clone --recurse-submodules

If not, you'll need to submodule init and update them after the fact in the working directory.

[Zobeid Zuma]

Is “sctools-master/hidapi” supposed to be an empty folder?

I believe that hidapi is a submodule. Did you do this?

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git clone --recurse-submodules

If not, you'll need to submodule init and update them after the fact in the working directory.

That all sounded like Geek to me, but okay. . . I did a few minutes research and figured out how to use the git command to retrieve the project, including the recursive bits. Then I ran the install again, and. . . made it a lot further, before it failed complaining that I didn't have some sort of libusb library on my system. So I checked Synaptic and found I did have the library, but not all of the packages associated with it. So I installed those, then ran the install again, and got this:

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libtool: install: /usr/bin/install -c .libs/libhidapi-hidraw.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libhidapi-hidraw.so.0.0.0
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file '/usr/local/lib/libhidapi-hidraw.so.0.0.0': Permission denied
make[3]: *** [Makefile:406: install-libLTLIBRARIES] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/zobeid/Keeb/sctools/hidapi/linux'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:602: install-am] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/zobeid/Keeb/sctools/hidapi/linux'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:561: install-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/zobeid/Keeb/sctools/hidapi'
make: *** [Makefile:447: install-recursive] Error 1

Permissions error? Can't create a file? Uhh. . . Maybe if I run it again with sudo?? Nope, still the same error.

I'm beginning to think sctools are only for seasoned professional programmers. I mean, I have some coding background and a few years of Linux experience, but this is beyond me.

[Bjerrk]

Arh, it's not so bad
I'll find the binaries for you when I'm back at the PC.

About the permissions, I'm guessing that you put sudo in front of the wrong command. It should be

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./autogen.sh && make && sudo make install

not

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sudo ./autogen.sh && make && make install

[Zobeid Zuma]

Arh, it's not so bad
I'll find the binaries for you when I'm back at the PC.

About the permissions, I'm guessing that you put sudo in front of the wrong command. It should be

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./autogen.sh && make && sudo make install

not

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sudo ./autogen.sh && make && make install

Well, that helped. There is progress. I still got permissions errors with that command, but then I tried putting in sudos on everything and got it to run without errors. That got scas and scdis installed successfully in my system, but none of the other commands, including the all-important scwr.

Incidentally, I did find my original source file for the layout that is currently active in the converter. That seems to confirm that I must have used Soarer's program before. I can't remember going through all of this rigamarole, though. I also have Mac and Windows systems here, so I may have used one of those, although I'm not sure how that would even have made it easier.

BTW, I recently got my hands on a System76 Launch keyboard, and their configuration program is absolutely brilliant and foolproof. But that may become a subject for another whole thread.

[Bjerrk]

Well, that helped. There is progress. I still got permissions errors with that command, but then I tried putting in sudos on everything and got it to run without errors.

Yes, that makes sense. If you had initially (as I suspected) run the command with sudo "in the wrong place" (e.g. in front of autogen or make), it would have created a bunch of files with root permissions, which would then frustrate your next attempt ...

That got scas and scdis installed successfully in my system, but none of the other commands, including the all-important scwr.

I'm on the PC now, so here's the link to the binaries: viewtopic.php?t=2510
Just get the version 1.10 ZIP file, then the precompiled tools are in the - you guessed it - tools subdirectory.

Incidentally, I did find my original source file for the layout that is currently active in the converter. That seems to confirm that I must have used Soarer's program before. I can't remember going through all of this rigamarole, though. I also have Mac and Windows systems here, so I may have used one of those, although I'm not sure how that would even have made it easier.

Well, I've "always" used Linux, and I don't remember going through that hassle either

BTW, I recently got my hands on a System76 Launch keyboard, and their configuration program is absolutely brilliant and foolproof. But that may become a subject for another whole thread.

Awesome, would love to see a review of that here. I remember seeing one on YouTube. Certainly seemed like something I would've bought had I gotten into keyboards today.

[Zobeid Zuma]

Incidentally, I did finally discover what I needed (including binaries) on my Windows PC. I thought that stuff had been wiped months ago when I swapped to a new computer, but I guess I was more diligent than I thought when transferring my old files. So, I am in business. (Although, I would still like to get those commands working on my Linux system too.)

I just figured out that Soarer's firmware doesn't have (as far as I can see) anything like the mod-tap feature of QMK, which is a bit annoying, as I had hoped to take advantage of that. Anyhow. . . I am typing this message with it now, and so far so good.