Without argument,
kbd_mode
prints the current keyboard mode. With argument, it sets the keyboard mode as
indicated:
-s :
scancode mode (RAW),
-k :
keycode mode (MEDIUMRAW),
-a :
ASCII mode (XLATE),
-u :
UTF-8 mode (UNICODE).
The
XLATE
mode is the traditional one, where the codes used can be any
8-bit
character set. Is is usually expected that this character set matches the one
used later to translate them internally into Unicode, after they are sent to
the screen to be displayed, using the map selected by
consolechars
-m .
In
UNICODE
mode, a
16-bit
character set is expected, and these chars are transmitted to the kernel as
1, 2, or 3 bytes (following the
UTF-8
coding). In these latter two modes the key mapping defined by
loadkeys (1)
is used.
WARNING:
changing the keyboard mode, other than between ASCII and Unicode, will
probably make your keyboard unusable. This command can also be useful (say
via remote login) when some program left your keyboard in the wrong state, to
get the keyboard back into
XLATE
or
UNICODE
mode.
Note that in some obsolete versions of this program the
-u
option was a synonym for
-s .
