1147-German Keyboard layout issues at Pre-BootPBConnex - CAPS LOCK yields different characters in Linux vs Windows

ISSUE:

When using the German Keyboard Layout, the CAPS LOCK key behaves differently on Windows than in Linux.  This can affect the user's login process if the user uses the Caps Lock key to simplify entry of a password that contains all (or mostly) capital letters AND in the context of a German Keyboard mapping.

.e.g. With Windows CAPS LOCK ON, the keystrokes QWERT123456 show as:  QWERT!”§$%&
yet with Linux CAPS LOCK ON. the same keystrokes show as:   QWERT123456

IMPACT:

When a user types his password in Windows using Caps Lock and the password contains special characters the same key sequence does not work at PreBoot..

SOLUTION:

This issue is German-specific. It depends on the German keyboard setting, even if the alternate English keyboard is currently selected.

Additionally PBConnex supports two different German layouts: "German” and "German (IBM)”. With the (IBM) variant it behaves like an English keyboard and will produce numerals with the CAPS LOCK key on, as in the example here:

(QWERTZ12345)

RECOMMENDATION:

To avoid the risk of users relying upon the Caps Lock key when entering passwords AND if using German as local language, then create an Installation Package in which you have made sure to select the German (IBM) keyboard layout. In this way, if using the Caps Lock key, the numerals will be the naturally-occurring characters. To enter the special characters (shifted versions of the numeral keys) the user can use the Shift key to access those characters.

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