SDL has not changed in TC2 so far, so I'm not really sure what could cause this for a US keyboard. Xvesa's the same too.
that much doesn't surprise me. i really think this is a tcb issue, but it's not relevant enough for robert to consider (speaking practically, not speaking for him) if it only affects dosbox and qemu and both are easily resolved without changes to tcb. i'm using the same keyboard / everything i normally run tc 1.x on to try 2.x.
When run from a terminal, does either app show any related info? Does explicitly specifying the us keymap help?
the term doesn't say anything special either way, for dosbox or qemu, but -k en-us seems to solve the issue for qemu. i'd ask if the next version of dosbox could have a config file included, because it's a little easier to edit one than create one (it could even have en-us unless you changed it...) but i'll certainly create one if that's what i have to do for normal use of dosbox now.
even if i change nothing/no config/no settings, i seem to be able to turn the num lock off and use the keypad's arrow keys, i only have to use the -k option if i want the usual (
picture) arrow keys that are arranged in an upside down 't' shape. same for dosbox (but this is new.) perhaps the easiest thing to do is update the .info files where relevant, no extensions need to be altered. i like an .info file that gives as much information as useful to new users, so long as it's not cluttered.