2 .TH LOADKEYS 1 "6 Feb 1994"
4 loadkeys \- load keyboard translation tables
24 .IX "loadkeys command" "" "\fLloadkeys\fR command"
28 reads the file or files specified by
30 Its main purpose is to load the kernel keymap for the console.
31 .SH "RESET TO DEFAULT"
38 loads a default keymap, probably the file
43 .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/char .
44 (Probably the former was user-defined, while the latter
45 is a qwerty keyboard map for PCs - maybe not what was desired.)
46 Sometimes, with a strange keymap loaded (with the minus on
47 some obscure unknown modifier combination) it is easier to
48 type `loadkeys defkeymap'.
49 .SH "LOAD KERNEL KEYMAP"
52 is to load or modify the keyboard driver's translation tables.
53 When specifying the file names, standard input can be denoted
54 by dash (-). If no file is specified, the data is read from
57 For many countries and keyboard types appropriate keymaps
58 are available already, and a command like `loadkeys uk' might
59 do what you want. On the other hand, it is easy to construct
60 one's own keymap. The user has to tell what symbols belong
61 to each key. She can find the keycode for a key by use of
63 while the keymap format is given in
65 and can also be seen from the output of
67 .SH "LOAD KERNEL ACCENT TABLE"
68 If the input file does not contain any compose key definitions,
69 the kernel accent table is left unchanged, unless the
73 ) option is given, in which case the kernel accent table is emptied.
74 If the input file does contain compose key definitions, then all
75 old definitions are removed, and replaced by the specified new entries.
76 The kernel accent table is a sequence of (by default 68) entries
77 describing how dead diacritical signs and compose keys behave.
81 compose ',' 'c' to ccedilla
84 means that <ComposeKey><,><c> must be combined to <ccedilla>.
85 The current content of this table can be see
86 using `dumpkeys --compose-only'.
87 .SH "LOAD KERNEL STRING TABLE"
92 ) clears the kernel string table. If this option is not given,
94 will only add or replace strings, not remove them.
95 (Thus, the option \-s is required to reach a well-defined state.)
96 The kernel string table is a sequence of strings
97 with names like F31. One can make function key F5 (on
98 an ordinary PC keyboard) produce the text `Hello!',
99 and Shift+F5 `Goodbye!' using lines
104 string F70 = "Hello!"
106 string F71 = "Goodbye!"
110 The default bindings for the function keys are certain
111 escape sequences mostly inspired by the VT100 terminal.
112 .SH "CREATE KERNEL SOURCE TABLE"
119 prints to the standard output a file that may be used as
120 .I /usr/src/linux\%/drivers\%/char\%/defkeymap.c,
121 specifying the default key bindings for a kernel
122 (and does not modify the current keymap).
127 prints its version number and a short usage message to the programs
128 standard error output and exits.
130 Note that anyone having read access to
134 and thus change the keyboard layout, possibly making it unusable. Note
135 that the keyboard translation table is common for all the virtual
136 consoles, so any changes to the keyboard bindings affect all the virtual
137 consoles simultaneously.
139 Note that because the changes affect all the virtual consoles, they also
140 outlive your session. This means that even at the login prompt the key
141 bindings may not be what the user expects.
144 .BI //lib/kbd/keymaps
145 default directory for keymaps
148 .BI /usr/src/linux/drivers/char/defkeymap.map
149 default kernel keymap