KBDCONTROL(1)           FreeBSD General Commands Manual          KBDCONTROL(1)

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]
                [-k keyboard_device] [-L keymap_file] [-P path]

DESCRIPTION
     The kbdcontrol command is used to set various keyboard related options
     for the syscons(4) or vt(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, or visual which sets the bell to visual mode,
             i.e., flashes the screen instead.  If belltype is preceded by the
             word quiet., the bell will not be rung when the ringing process
             is in the background vty.  The visual 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) or normal (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.

     -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.

     -P path
             Search for the keymap file in path.  The -P option may be
             specified multiple times.

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 for syscons
     /usr/share/vt/keymaps/*             keyboard map files for vt

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
     (if using syscons(4)) or /usr/share/vt/keymaps (if using vt(4)), you may
     abbreviate the file name as ru.koi8-r.  Since vt(4) uses Unicode, the
     corresponding keyboard file names omit the encoding and typically are
     just a country code, e.g. ru.

           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
     flashing 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 command.

           kbdcontrol -k /dev/ukbd0 < /dev/console

     To switch back to the default keyboard, use this command.

           kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd0

     To allow using both the second USB keyboard and the first AT keyboard at
     the same time on console via the kbdmux(4) driver, use the following
     sequence of commands.

           kbdcontrol -K < /dev/console
           kbdcontrol -a atkbd0 < /dev/kbdmux0
           kbdcontrol -a ukbd1 < /dev/kbdmux0
           kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbdmux0 < /dev/console

SEE ALSO
     kbdmap(1), vidcontrol(1), atkbd(4), kbdmux(4), keyboard(4), screen(4),
     syscons(4), ukbd(4), vt(4), kbdmap(5), rc.conf(5)

AUTHORS
     S/ren Schmidt <sos@FreeBSD.org>

BUGS
     Report when found.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6         March 16, 2016         FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6