NAME
kbdcontrol
—
keyboard control and configuration
utility
SYNOPSIS
kbdcontrol |
[-dFKix ] [-A
name] [-a
name] [-b
duration.pitch |
belltype] [-r
delay.repeat |
speed] [-l
keymap_file] [-f
# string]
[-h size]
[-k keyboard_device]
[-L keymap_file] |
DESCRIPTION
Thekbdcontrol
command is used to set various keyboard
related options for the
syscons(4) console driver and the keyboard drivers, such as key map,
keyboard repeat and delay rates, bell characteristics etc.
Keyboard options may be automatically configured at system boot time by setting variables in /etc/rc.conf. See Boot Time Configuration below.
The following command line options are supported:
-A
name- Detach the keyboard, specified by the keyboard device name, from the
keyboard multiplexer. When using this option, the standard input of the
kbdcontrol
process should be redirected from the keyboard multiplexer keyboard device (if the keyboard multiplexer is not the active keyboard) or /dev/console (if the keyboard multiplexer is the active keyboard and you are not working on the system console). -a
name- Attach the keyboard, specified by the keyboard device name, to the
keyboard multiplexer. When using this option, the standard input of the
kbdcontrol
process should be redirected from the keyboard multiplexer keyboard device (if the keyboard multiplexer is not the active keyboard) or /dev/console (if the keyboard multiplexer is the active keyboard and you are not working on the system console). -b
duration.pitch | belltype- Set the bell duration in milliseconds and pitch in hertz. If a
belltype argument is specified, it may be one of
normal
which sets sound parameters back to normal values,off
which disables the bell entirely, orvisual
which sets the bell to visual mode, i.e., flashes the screen instead. If belltype is preceded by the wordquiet.
, the bell will not be rung when the ringing process is in the background vty. Thevisual
bell, when chosen, applies to all vtys; other bell types can be set individually for each vty. -r
delay.repeat | speed- Set keyboard delay (250, 500, 750, 1000) and
repeat (34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 55, 59, 63, 68, 76, 84,
92, 100, 110, 118, 126, 136, 152, 168, 184, 200, 220, 236, 252, 272, 304,
336, 368, 400, 440, 472, 504) rates, or if a speed
argument is specified, it may be one of
slow
(1000.504),fast
(250.34) ornormal
(500.126). -l
keymap_file- Install keyboard map file from keymap_file. You may load the keyboard map file from a menu-driven command, kbdmap(1). The format of keyboard map files is documented in the kbdmap(5) manual page.
-d
- Dump the current keyboard map onto stdout. The output may be redirected to
a file and can be loaded back to the kernel later by the
-l
option above. -f
# string- Set function key number # to send string. Refer to the man page for the keyboard driver (e.g. atkbd(4)) for available function keys and their numbers.
-F
- Set function keys back to the standard definitions.
-x
- Use hexadecimal numbers in keyboard map dump.
-h
size- Set history buffer size to size lines.
-i
- Print brief information about the keyboard.
-K
- Disconnect the keyboard from the console. You need to use the
-k
option below to associate a keyboard with the console again. -k
keyboard_device- Use the specified device as the console keyboard. When using this option,
the standard input of the
kbdcontrol
process should be redirected from /dev/console if you are not working on the system console (see the EXAMPLES section). -L
keymap_file- Load keyboard map file from keymap_file and write the struct keymap compiled from it to stdout. This option is primarily intended for programmers and is probably of little use under normal circumstances.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable KEYMAP_PATH
can
hold an alternative path to the keyboard map files.
KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION
Boot Time Configuration
You may set variables in /etc/rc.conf or /etc/rc.conf.local in order to configure the keyboard at boot time. The following is the list of relevant variables.
- keymap
- Specifies a keyboard map file for the
-l
option. - keyrate
- Sets the keyboard repeat rate for the
-r
option. - keychange
- Lists function key strings for the
-f
option.
See rc.conf(5) for details.
Driver Configuration
The keyboard device driver may let you change default configuration options, such as the default keyboard map, so that you do not need to set up the options at boot time. See keyboard driver manuals (e.g. atkbd(4), ukbd(4)) for details.
FILES
- /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/*
- keyboard map files
EXAMPLES
The following command will load the keyboard map file /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/ru.koi8-r.kbd.
kbdcontrol -l
/usr/share/syscons/keymaps/ru.koi8-r.kbd
So long as the keyboard map file resides in /usr/share/syscons/keymaps, you may abbreviate the file name as ru.koi8-r.
kbdcontrol -l ru.koi8-r
The following command will make the function key 10 emit "telnet myhost".
kbdcontrol -f 10 "telnet
myhost"
In order to get the visual effect for bell, but prevent the screen from flushing if the bell is to ring in the background screen, run the following command.
kbdcontrol -b
quiet.visual
To change the default console keyboard to another keyboard, for example the first USB keyboard (see ukbd(4)), use the following commands.
kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 <
/dev/console
To switch back to the default keyboard, use this command.
kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd0
SEE ALSO
kbdmap(1), vidcontrol(1), atkbd(4), kbdmux(4), keyboard(4), screen(4), syscons(4), ukbd(4), kbdmap(5), rc.conf(5)
AUTHORS
Søren Schmidt <sos@FreeBSD.org>
BUGS
Report when found.