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enkidu
313
Oct 2, 2018
Woot, I think I figured it out! First of all, using windows emulation frameworks like Wine, Crossover etc. was a complete no go. The basic problem is that getting those frameworks direct USB access to the Keywalker doesn't work. So you can run the program, but it can't find the keyboard, all you get is a little popup "keyboard not connected" or something. Bleah.
Harder core virtualization was needed. But the sticking point is that you still need Windows and I wasn't interested in buying a whole copy of Windows just to run this one program. I could have tried running some Windows emulation on Linux on Mac, but then you're back in the same problem from above. I also briefly thought about bootcamp etc. but I'd still have the USB emulation+passthrough problem unless I installed windows directly.
VirtualBox to the rescue! VirtualBox has pretty robust emulation/connection tools and a plethora of different images. At first I thought I'd have to "borrow" a working Windows image to run the program, but Microsoft makes free images available for testing purposes.
- The tools https://github.com/GonzaloAlvarez/ifd68 - Some handy instructions, most of which apply for the Mac version of VirtualBox: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/oldgrub - Free and totally legal IE images (I used IE8) from Microsoft: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/
Extremely abbreviated and probably incomplete instructions for legally reprogramming your Keywalker on a Mac:
- Clone https://github.com/GonzaloAlvarez/ifd68 to your Mac. - Download VirtualBox. - Download free IE8 VM image from Microsoft website. - Install IE8 VM. - Install Virtual Box tools to VM. - Reboot (many times). - Share cloned ifd68 directory through VirtualBox. - Plug in IFD68 keyboard to USB port. - Add IFD68 keyboard to VM via Devices -> USB menu item. - Navigate to shared ifd68 directory in the VM, it's on the network - Run fd68/software/original/programmer/IFD68.exe and Bob's your uncle!
That was easy, right! ;-)
Anyways, I reprogrammed my my CapsLock key to now be the left ctrl key and I am a happy camper! Using the Keywalker in bluetooth mode right now to type these instructions. Many thanks to GonzaloAlvarez, Oracle, and Microsoft for providing the tools I used for this.
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