keyboard

KEYBOARD(5)               Console-setup User's Manual              KEYBOARD(5)

NAME
       keyboard - keyboard configuration file

DESCRIPTION
       The  keyboard file describes the properties of the keyboard. It is read
       by setupcon(1) in order to configure the keyboard on the  console.   In
       Debian  systems  the  default  keyboard layout is described in /etc/de-
       fault/keyboard and it is shared between X and the console.

       The specification of the keyboard layout in the keyboard file 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
       xorg.lst.

       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 keyboard consists of variable settings in POSIX format:

              VARIABLE=VALUE

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

OPTIONS
       The following variables can be set.

       XKBMODEL
              Specifies the XKB keyboard model name.  Default: pc105  on  most
              platforms.

       XKBLAYOUT
              Specifies  the  XKB  keyboard  layout  name. This is usually the
              country or language type of the keyboard. Default:  us  on  most
              platforms

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

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

       BACKSPACE
              Determines  the behavior of <BackSpace> and <Delete> keys on the
              console.  Allowed values: bs, del and guess.  In most cases  you
              can  specify guess here, in which case the current terminal set-
              tings and the kernel of your operating system will  be  used  to
              determine  the  correct value.  Value bs specifies VT100-confor-
              mant behavior: <BackSpace>  will  generate  ^H  (ASCII  BS)  and
              <Delete>  will  generate  ^?   (ASCII DEL).  Value del specifies
              VT220-conformant behavior: <BackSpace> will generate ^?   (ASCII
              DEL) and <Delete> will generate a special function sequence.

       KMAP   Usually 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 load-
              keys(1) on Linux or for kbdcontrol(1) on FreeBSD.

FILES
       The standard location of the keyboard  file  is  /etc/default/keyboard.
       Description of all available keyboard models, layouts, variants and op-
       tions is available in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst.  In most  cas-
       es, in /usr/share/keymaps/ or /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/ you will find
       several keymaps that can be used with the variable KMAP.

NOTES
       In Debian systems, changes in /etc/default/keyboard 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 setupcon(1).

BUGS
       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 grp:shifts_toggle is not supported on the console.

EXAMPLES
       The following configuration will give you the standard US QWERTY layout
       (us).   The  key  <Menu>  will  act as a compose key (compose:menu) and
       <CapsLock> will act as third control key (ctrl:nocaps).

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

       In the following configuration the right <Alt>  key  (grp:toggle)  will
       toggle between US QWERTY layout (us) and Greek (gr) layout.  The option
       grp_led:scroll is 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 (grp:ctrl_shift_toggle) between French keyboard (fr) with-
       out dead keys (nodeadkeys) and British (gb) "Dvorak" (dvorak) keyboard.
       The  right <Win> key will be a compose-key (compose:rwin) and the right
       <Alt> key will function as AltGr (lv3:lalt_switch).

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

SEE ALSO
       setupcon(1), ckbcomp(1), console-setup(5), loadkeys(1), kbdcontrol(1)

console-setup                     2011-03-17                       KEYBOARD(5)