As far as I've understood, iLO2 remote console functionality inserts the remote keyboard input into the server's PS2 keyboard controller data path.
On your workstation, a PS2 keyboard produces scan codes, which are basically keyboard layout independent (they just identify the location of the physical key on the standard PS2 keyboard). The scan codes are then translated into characters by the OS (USB keyboards use a different terminology and a more complex protocol). Because of this, the OS must be configured with the correct keyboard layout or the output won't match what is printed on the top of the keys.
When the iLO2 console is used, iLO2 receives already-mapped characters over the network. It needs to "reverse-map" these characters back into PS2 scan codes in order to successfully insert them into the data path of the local keyboard. That's why iLO2 has a keyboard layout setting: if it does not match the keyboard layout settings of the remote workstation, the character-to-scancode mapping will be wrong and you will get unexpected characters. Then there is still the matter of scancode-to-character translation in the server OS: if that is not configured as you expect, it can add even more confusion.
So, there are three pieces of information you will need in order to resolve this issue:
- the keyboard layout setting of your workstation OS
- the keyboard layout setting of iLO2 (this is probably the primary cause of your problems)
- the keyboard layout setting of the server OS
In an ideal situation, all three should be in agreement. But I think iLO2 had a somewhat restricted selection of keyboard layouts: if you are using some national keyboard layout that is not included in the iLO2's list, you may have to study the various keyboard layouts (try Wikipedia, or google for keyboard layout descriptions) and find one that is the closest match to what you're using.
MK
