4mKEYBOARD24m(5)               Console-setup User's Manual              4mKEYBOARD24m(5)

1mNAME0m
       keyboard - keyboard configuration file

1mDESCRIPTION0m
       The  1mkeyboard 22mfile describes the properties of the keyboard. It is read
       by 1msetupcon22m(1) in order to configure the keyboard on the  console.   In
       Debian  systems  the  default  keyboard layout is described in 4m/etc/de-0m
       4mfault/keyboard24m and it is shared between X and the console.

       The specification of the keyboard layout in the 1mkeyboard 22mfile is  based
       on the XKB options XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbVariant and XkbOptions.  Un-
       fortunately,  there  is little documentation how to use them.  Descrip-
       tion of all possible values for these options can be found in the  file
       4mbase.lst24m.

       You might want to read "The XKB Configuration Guide" by Kamil Toman and
       Ivan U. Pascal:

              http://www.xfree86.org/current/XKB-Config.html

       Other possible readings are:

              https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X_KeyBoard_extension
              http://pascal.tsu.ru/en/xkb/
              http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/

       The complete XKB-specification can be found on

              http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf

       The file 1mkeyboard 22mconsists of variable settings in POSIX format:

              4mVARIABLE24m=4mVALUE0m

       Only  one assignment is allowed per line.  Comments (starting with '#')
       are also allowed.


1mOPTIONS0m
       The following variables can be set.


       1mXKBMODEL0m
              Specifies the XKB keyboard model name.  Default: 1mpc105  22mon  most
              platforms.


       1mXKBLAYOUT0m
              Specifies  the  XKB  keyboard  layout  name. This is usually the
              country or language type of the keyboard. Default:  1mus  22mon  most
              platforms


       1mXKBVARIANT0m
              Specifies the XKB keyboard variant components. These can be used
              to  further  specify  the  keyboard layout details. Default: not
              set.


       1mXKBOPTIONS0m
              Specifies the XKB keyboard option components.   Options  usually
              relate  to the behavior of the special keys (<Shift>, <Control>,
              <Alt>, <CapsLock>, etc.)  Default: not set.


       1mBACKSPACE0m
              Determines the behavior of <BackSpace> and <Delete> keys on  the
              console.   Allowed values: 1mbs22m, 1mdel 22mand 1mguess22m.  In most cases you
              can specify 1mguess 22mhere, in which case the current terminal  set-
              tings  and  the  kernel of your operating system will be used to
              determine the correct value.  Value 1mbs  22mspecifies  VT100-confor-
              mant  behavior:  <BackSpace>  will  generate  1m^H  22m(ASCII BS) and
              <Delete> will generate 1m^?  22m(ASCII  DEL).   Value  1mdel  22mspecifies
              VT220-conformant  behavior: <BackSpace> will generate 1m^?  22m(ASCII
              DEL) and <Delete> will generate a special function sequence.


       1mKMAP   22mUsually this variable will be unset but if you don't want to use
              a XKB layout on the console,  you  can  specify  an  alternative
              keymap here.  Specify a file that is suitable as input for 1mload-0m
              1mkeys22m(1) on Linux or for 1mkbdcontrol22m(1) on FreeBSD.


1mFILES0m
       The  standard  location  of  the  1mkeyboard  22mfile  is 4m/usr/local/etc/de-0m
       4mfault/keyboard24m.  Description of all available keyboard models, layouts,
       variants     and     options     is     available      in      4m/usr/lo-0m
       4mcal/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst24m.       In      most      cases,     in
       4m/usr/share/keymaps/24m or 4m/usr/share/syscons/keymaps/24m you will find sever-
       al keymaps that can be used with the variable 1mKMAP22m.


1mNOTES0m
       In Debian systems, changes in 4m/etc/default/keyboard24m do not become imme-
       diately visible to X.  You should either reboot the system, or use

           udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change

       In order to activate the changes on the console, run 1msetupcon22m(1)1m.0m


1mBUGS0m
       When a triple-layout is used on the console, i.e. a layout  with  three
       XKB  groups,  then  the  group  toggling  happens in the following way:
       Group1 -> Group2 -> Group1 -> Group3.

       On FreeBSD triple- and quadruple-layouts are not supported on the  con-
       sole (only the first and the second layout are taken into account).

       The option 1mgrp:shifts_toggle 22mis not supported on the console.


1mEXAMPLES0m
       The following configuration will give you the standard US QWERTY layout
       (1mus22m).   The  key  <Menu>  will  act as a compose key (1mcompose:menu22m) and
       <CapsLock> will act as third control key (1mctrl:nocaps22m).

           XKBLAYOUT=us
           XKBVARIANT=
           XKBOPTIONS=compose:menu,ctrl:nocaps

       In the following configuration the right <Alt>  key  (1mgrp:toggle22m)  will
       toggle between US QWERTY layout (1mus22m) and Greek (1mgr22m) layout.  The option
       1mgrp_led:scroll  22mis  ignored on the console but in X in means to use the
       ScrollLock keyboard led as indicator for  the  current  layout  (US  or
       Greek).

           XKBLAYOUT=us,gr
           XKBVARIANT=
           XKBOPTIONS=grp:toggle,grp_led:scroll

       In  the  following  configuration the <Control>+<Shift> key combination
       will toggle (1mgrp:ctrl_shift_toggle22m) between French keyboard (1mfr22m)  with-
       out dead keys (1mnodeadkeys22m) and British (1mgb22m) "Dvorak" (1mdvorak22m) keyboard.
       The  right <Win> key will be a compose-key (1mcompose:rwin22m) and the right
       <Alt> key will function as AltGr (1mlv3:lalt_switch22m).

           XKBLAYOUT=fr,gb
           XKBVARIANT=nodeadkeys,dvorak
           XKBOPTIONS=grp:ctrl_shift_toggle,compose:rwin,lv3:ralt_switch


1mSEE ALSO0m
       1msetupcon22m(1), 1mckbcomp22m(1), 1mconsole-setup22m(5), 1mloadkeys22m(1), 1mkbdcontrol22m(1)

console-setup                     2011-03-17                       4mKEYBOARD24m(5)
