The feature of activating the OSD by simultaneous pressing of up and down direction keys is no longer available in the forthcoming firmware. I found it unreliable and working well only with my modified APPE32 interface and PSX/PS2 pad.
Instead I simply wired the on-board MENU button to the third fire button line on the joystick connector (this line isn't connected at all so there is no way of supporting a CD32 pad or additional buttons on a Sega Mega Drive pad).
To use the START button to bring the OSD on it's required to swap three wires inside the SMD pad.
Besides you can always use the Minimig MENU button to switch on/off the OSD menu.