I don't know if a working example would help, but here it is anyway:

#!/perl/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use CGI;

my $query = new CGI;

my @checks_list = qw(eenie meenie minie moe);
my @check_array = qw(eenie moe);
my %hash = (
    eenie  => 'Eenie',
    meenie => 'Meenie',
    minie  => 'Minie',
    moe    => 'Moe');

print $query->header(),
    $query->start_html(),
    $query->start_form(),

    $query->checkbox_group(
        -name    => 'group_name',
        -values  => \@checks_list,
        -default => \@check_array,
        -labels  => \%hash,
        -rows    => 2,
        -columns => 2),

    $query->end_form(),
    $query->end_html();
[download]

Thanks, but I need to use the param function - these checkboxes are defined by data in a database - I can't pre-define them.

I hate to brute-force it, and not use CGI, which I can do, but I'd rather use CGI. But it's looking grim...

Update: Here's the brute force code that works:

 elsif ($type =~ /check/) {
            my $i=0;
            print "$english:\n";
            (my $values, my $labels) = split (':',$params[0]);
            my @checks_list = split (';',$values);
            my @clabels_list = split (';',$labels);
            foreach(@checks_list) {
                my $index=index $real_fields{$name},$_;
                if ($index != -1) {
                    print "$clabels_list[$i]<INPUT TYPE=\"checkbox\" N
+AME=\"$name\" VALUE=\"$_\" CHECKED>\n";
                } else {
                    print "$clabels_list[$i]<INPUT TYPE=\"checkbox\" N
+AME=\"$name\" VALUE=\"$_\">\n";

                }
                $i++;
            }
            print $q->br();
}
[download]

I'd love it if someone found a way to use the param function of CGI to get this to work!