Windows 10 – Musings of Dan

IBM Model-M and the Windows Key

I really love my IBM Model-M keyboard, but one frustration is the more frequent need for the Windows key. Even some Linux desktops are using it. Oh I get it, it’s a handy “meta” key that helps differentiate keyboard tasks so it’s lack is annoying at times.

For the few times I am in Windows 10 using my Model-M keyboard, I found this answer on SuperUser.com to re-map the caps-lock key to the Windows key with a simple registry hack: https://superuser.com/a/1228990/101577

Just in case that link goes away, here’s the text:

Anyway, using SharpKeys I found the correct map for CAPS LOCK to Win is this:
https://superuser.com/a/1228990/101577

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,5b,e0,3a,00,00,00,00,00

Just save those lines as presented into a file, “c:\WinKeyRemap.reg”, then use File Manager to find it, then double-click to open it with the Registry Editor. (You’ll need to accept the warning.) Assuming the file is correct, Registry Editor will report that the values have been added to the registry.

Reboot to make the changes take effect.

Docker on Windows Subsystem for Linux to play with RedHat 8

Ok, so this is kind of long but neat too!

A co-worker asked about using a Docker image for a project he’s working on and I suggested that he use the RedHat 7/8 based “Universal Base Image” that they announced at Summit. (Our company has a large installed base of RedHat, so there is a big advantage being to tap into that internal knowledge.)

–> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introducing-red-hat-universal-base-image

If you have a machine with Docker setup, then doing a pull of “registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi:latest” will pull down the RHEL-8 version.

–> $ docker run –rm -it registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi:latest /bin/bash

“But I don’t have a Docker system, I only have Windows 10!” No fear, you can install Docker on Windows:

–> https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/

From there you can kick off Docker from PowerShell or the command prompt with the exact same command prompt as shown above.

“But I want to do this in a Linux environment on my Windows workstation!” Use the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” feature of Windows 10:

–> https://medium.com/@sebagomez/installing-the-docker-client-on-ubuntus-windows-subsystem-for-linux-612b392a44c4

Here’s a screen shot of a RHEL-8 container running under WSL showing that “yum install …” works as expected: