keyboard(5)

1KEYBOARD(5)               Console-setup User's Manual              KEYBOARD(5)
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NAME

6       keyboard - keyboard configuration file
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DESCRIPTION

9       The  keyboard file describes the properties of the keyboard. It is read
10       by setupcon(1) in order to configure the keyboard on the  console.   In
11       Debian  systems  the  default  keyboard layout is described in /etc/de‐
12       fault/keyboard and it is shared between X and the console.
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14       The specification of the keyboard layout in the keyboard file is  based
15       on the XKB options XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbVariant and XkbOptions.  Un‐
16       fortunately, there is little documentation how to use  them.   Descrip‐
17       tion  of all possible values for these options can be found in the file
18       base.lst.
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20       You might want to read “The XKB Configuration Guide” by Kamil Toman and
21       Ivan U. Pascal:
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23              http://www.xfree86.org/current/XKB-Config.html
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25       Other possible readings are:
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27              https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X_KeyBoard_extension
28              http://pascal.tsu.ru/en/xkb/
29              http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/
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31       The complete XKB-specification can be found on
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33              http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf
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35       The file keyboard consists of variable settings in POSIX format:
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37              VARIABLE=VALUE
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39       Only  one assignment is allowed per line.  Comments (starting with '#')
40       are also allowed.
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OPTIONS

44       The following variables can be set.
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47       XKBMODEL
48              Specifies the XKB keyboard model name.  Default: pc105  on  most
49              platforms.
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52       XKBLAYOUT
53              Specifies  the  XKB  keyboard  layout  name. This is usually the
54              country or language type of the keyboard. Default:  us  on  most
55              platforms
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58       XKBVARIANT
59              Specifies the XKB keyboard variant components. These can be used
60              to further specify the keyboard  layout  details.  Default:  not
61              set.
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64       XKBOPTIONS
65              Specifies  the  XKB keyboard option components.  Options usually
66              relate to the behavior of the special keys (<Shift>,  <Control>,
67              <Alt>, <CapsLock>, etc.)  Default: not set.
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70       BACKSPACE
71              Determines  the behavior of <BackSpace> and <Delete> keys on the
72              console.  Allowed values: bs, del and guess.  In most cases  you
73              can  specify guess here, in which case the current terminal set‐
74              tings and the kernel of your operating system will  be  used  to
75              determine  the  correct value.  Value bs specifies VT100-confor‐
76              mant behavior: <BackSpace>  will  generate  ^H  (ASCII  BS)  and
77              <Delete>  will  generate  ^?   (ASCII DEL).  Value del specifies
78              VT220-conformant behavior: <BackSpace> will generate ^?   (ASCII
79              DEL) and <Delete> will generate a special function sequence.
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82       KMAP   Usually this variable will be unset but if you don't want to use
83              a XKB layout on the console,  you  can  specify  an  alternative
84              keymap here.  Specify a file that is suitable as input for load‐
85              keys(1) on Linux or for kbdcontrol(1) on FreeBSD.
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FILES

89       The standard location of the keyboard  file  is  /etc/default/keyboard.
90       Description of all available keyboard models, layouts, variants and op‐
91       tions is available in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst.  In most  cas‐
92       es, in /lib/kbd/keymaps/ you will find several keymaps that can be used
93       with the variable KMAP.
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NOTES

97       In Debian systems, changes in /etc/default/keyboard do not become imme‐
98       diately visible to X.  You should either reboot the system, or use
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100           udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change
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102       In order to activate the changes on the console, run setupcon(1).
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BUGS

106       When  a  triple-layout is used on the console, i.e. a layout with three
107       XKB groups, then the group  toggling  happens  in  the  following  way:
108       Group1 -> Group2 -> Group1 -> Group3.
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110       On  FreeBSD triple- and quadruple-layouts are not supported on the con‐
111       sole (only the first and the second layout are taken into account).
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113       The option grp:shifts_toggle is not supported on the console.
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EXAMPLES

117       The following configuration will give you the standard US QWERTY layout
118       (us).   The  key  <Menu>  will  act as a compose key (compose:menu) and
119       <CapsLock> will act as third control key (ctrl:nocaps).
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121           XKBLAYOUT=us
122           XKBVARIANT=
123           XKBOPTIONS=compose:menu,ctrl:nocaps
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125       In the following configuration the right <Alt>  key  (grp:toggle)  will
126       toggle between US QWERTY layout (us) and Greek (gr) layout.  The option
127       grp_led:scroll is ignored on the console but in X in means to  use  the
128       ScrollLock  keyboard  led  as  indicator  for the current layout (US or
129       Greek).
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131           XKBLAYOUT=us,gr
132           XKBVARIANT=
133           XKBOPTIONS=grp:toggle,grp_led:scroll
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135       In the following configuration the  <Control>+<Shift>  key  combination
136       will  toggle (grp:ctrl_shift_toggle) between French keyboard (fr) with‐
137       out dead keys (nodeadkeys) and British (gb) “Dvorak” (dvorak) keyboard.
138       The  right <Win> key will be a compose-key (compose:rwin) and the right
139       <Alt> key will function as AltGr (lv3:lalt_switch).
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141           XKBLAYOUT=fr,gb
142           XKBVARIANT=nodeadkeys,dvorak
143           XKBOPTIONS=grp:ctrl_shift_toggle,compose:rwin,lv3:ralt_switch
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