.\"Copyright (C) 2011 Anton Zinoviev <anton@lml.bas.bg>
.\"
.\"Copying and distribution of this file, with or without
.\"modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided
.\"the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.  This file is
.\"offered as-is, without any warranty.
.\"
.TH KEYBOARD 5 2011-03-17 console-setup "Console-setup User's Manual"
.SH NAME
keyboard \- keyboard configuration file
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B keyboard
file describes the properties of the keyboard. It is read by
.BR setupcon (1)
in order to configure the keyboard on the console.  In Debian systems
the default keyboard layout is described in
.I /etc/default/keyboard
and it is shared between X and the console.
.P
The specification of the keyboard layout in the
.B keyboard
file is based on the
.SM XKB
options XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbVariant and XkbOptions.
Unfortunately, there is little documentation how to use them.  Description of all possible values for these options can be found in the file
.IR base.lst .
.P
You might want to read \*(lqThe XKB Configuration Guide\*(rq by Kamil
Toman and Ivan U. Pascal:
.IP
http://www.xfree86.org/current/XKB-Config.html
.P
Other possible readings are:
.IP
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X_KeyBoard_extension
.br
http://pascal.tsu.ru/en/xkb/
.br
http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/
.PP
The complete XKB-specification can be found on
.IP
http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf
.PP
The file
.B keyboard
consists of variable settings in
.SM POSIX
format:
.IP
.IR VARIABLE = VALUE
.PP
Only one assignment is allowed per line.  Comments (starting with '#')
are also allowed.

.SH OPTIONS
The following variables can be set.

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

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

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

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

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

.TP
.B KMAP
Usually this variable will be unset but if you don't want to use a
.SM XKB
layout on the console, you can specify an alternative keymap here.
Specify a file that is suitable as input for
.BR loadkeys (1)
on Linux or for
.BR kbdcontrol (1)
on FreeBSD.

.SH FILES
The standard location of the
.B keyboard
file is
.IR /usr/local/etc/default/keyboard .
Description of all available keyboard models, layouts, variants and
options is available in
.IR /usr/local/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst .
In most cases, in
.IR /usr/share/keymaps/ " or " /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/
you will find several keymaps that can be used with the variable
.BR KMAP .

.SH NOTES
In Debian systems, changes in
.I /etc/default/keyboard
do not become immediately visible to X.  You should either reboot the
system, or use
.in +4n
.nf

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

.fi
.in
In order to activate the changes on the console, run
.BR setupcon (1) .

.SH BUGS
When a triple-layout is used on the console, i.e. a layout with three
.SM XKB
groups, then the group toggling happens in the following way: Group1
\-> Group2 \-> Group1 \-> Group3.
.P
On FreeBSD triple- and quadruple-layouts are not supported on the
console (only the first and the second layout are taken into account).
.P
The option
.B grp:shifts_toggle
is not supported on the console.

.SH EXAMPLES

The following configuration will give you the standard
.SM US QWERTY
layout
.RB ( us ).
The key
.nh
.SM <Menu>
.hy
will act as a compose key
.RB ( compose:menu )
and
.nh
.SM <CapsLock>
.hy
will act as third control key
.RB ( ctrl:nocaps ).
.in +4n
.nf

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

.fi
.in
In the following configuration the right
.nh
.SM <Alt>
.hy
key
.RB ( grp:toggle )
will toggle between
.SM US QWERTY
layout
.RB ( us )
and Greek
.RB ( gr )
layout.  The option
.B 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).
.in +4n
.nf

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

.fi
.in
In the following configuration the
.nh
.SM <Control>+<Shift>
.hy
key combination will toggle
.RB ( grp:ctrl_shift_toggle )
between French keyboard
.RB ( fr )
without dead keys
.RB ( nodeadkeys )
and British
.RB ( gb )
\*(lqDvorak\*(rq
.RB ( dvorak )
keyboard.  The right
.nh
.SM <Win>
.hy
key will be a compose-key
.RB ( compose:rwin )
and the right
.nh
.SM <Alt>
.hy
key will function as AltGr
.RB ( lv3:lalt_switch ).
.in +4n
.nf

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

.fi
.in
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR setupcon (1),
.BR ckbcomp (1),
.BR console-setup (5),
.BR loadkeys (1),
.BR kbdcontrol (1)