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I am trying to install SteamOS in Oracle VirtualBox. I know how to do it but in the UEFI, it won't let me type "\" it lets me type any other character but not this.

Any ideas?

Mureinik
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Mat Whiteside
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  • Are you able to type any possible national characters? I'm not familiar with the UK keyboard layout, but you may want to try e.g. `£`. I'm betting the keyboard scan codes are being interpreted according to a US keyboard layout because nothing else has been loaded at that point. – user Dec 14 '13 at 12:30
  • If I type "£" on my keyboard it comes types "#". – Mat Whiteside Dec 14 '13 at 12:32
  • Let me guess, `£` on a UK keyboard is Shift+3? – user Dec 14 '13 at 12:33
  • Yes, I have sorted it now. The "#" key types the "\" key in the VM. Thanks :) – Mat Whiteside Dec 14 '13 at 12:35
  • OK, we've got it. Let me type up a proper answer, too. :) – user Dec 14 '13 at 12:36

1 Answers1

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This is because in the UEFI firmware setup, no specific keyboard layout has been loaded. So it falls back to a firmware default, which almost certainly happens to be a US keyboard layout.

The computer doesn't really know what's printed on the various key caps on the keyboard. What it does know, is how to map keyboard scan codes to character numbers (normally in ASCII), which in turn it knows how to display as glyphs on the screen.

What you are seeing is an effect of this indirection.

There is a \ key somewhere on your keyboard while you're in the UEFI setup (and it turns out it's the same key that is normally used for # on the UK keyboard layout, as we found out in the comments), and you'll just have to do a bit of experimentation to find it. You should be able to find any key that exists on a US keyboard layout, although the physical location of the key that produces that glyph may be somewhat non-obvious.

You'll see the same effect if you set your operating system to use a US keyboard layout.

user
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