NAME

       keyboard - keyboard configuration file

DESCRIPTION

       The  keyboard  file  describes  the  properties  of  the  keyboard. It is read by setupcon(1) in order to
       configure the keyboard on the console.  In Debian systems the default keyboard  layout  is  described  in
       /etc/default/keyboard and it is shared between X and the console.

       The  specification  of  the  keyboard  layout  in the keyboard file is based on the 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 xorg.lst.

       You might want to read “The XKB Configuration Guide” by Kamil Toman and Ivan U. Pascal:

              http://www.xfree86.org/current/XKB-Config.html

       Other possible readings are:

              https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X_KeyBoard_extension
              http://pascal.tsu.ru/en/xkb/
              http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/

       The complete XKB-specification can be found on

              http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf

       The file keyboard consists of variable settings in POSIX format:

              VARIABLE=VALUE

       Only one assignment is allowed per line.  Comments (starting with '#') are also allowed.

OPTIONS

       The following variables can be set.

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

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

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

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

       BACKSPACE
              Determines the behavior of <BackSpace> and <Delete> keys on the console.  Allowed values: bs,  del
              and  guess.  In most cases you can specify 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  bs
              specifies  VT100-conformant  behavior:  <BackSpace>  will generate ^H (ASCII BS) and <Delete> will
              generate ^?  (ASCII  DEL).   Value  del  specifies  VT220-conformant  behavior:  <BackSpace>  will
              generate ^?  (ASCII DEL) and <Delete> will generate a special function sequence.

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

FILES

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

NOTES

       In Debian systems, changes in /etc/default/keyboard do not become immediately visible to X.   You  should
       either reboot the system, or use

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

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

BUGS

       When a triple-layout is used on the console, i.e. a layout with three XKB groups, then the group toggling
       happens in the following way: Group1 -> Group2 -> Group1 -> Group3.

       On FreeBSD triple- and quadruple-layouts are not supported on the console (only the first and the  second
       layout are taken into account).

       The option grp:shifts_toggle is not supported on the console.

EXAMPLES

       The following configuration will give you the standard US QWERTY layout (us).  The key <Menu> will act as
       a compose key (compose:menu) and <CapsLock> will act as third control key (ctrl:nocaps).

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

       In the following configuration the right <Alt> key (grp:toggle) will toggle between US QWERTY layout (us)
       and  Greek (gr) layout.  The option 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).

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

       In the following configuration the <Control>+<Shift> key combination will toggle  (grp:ctrl_shift_toggle)
       between  French keyboard (fr) without dead keys (nodeadkeys) and British (gb) “Dvorak” (dvorak) keyboard.
       The right <Win> key will be a compose-key (compose:rwin) and the right <Alt> key will function  as  AltGr
       (lv3:lalt_switch).

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

SEE ALSO

       setupcon(1), ckbcomp(1), console-setup(5), loadkeys(1), kbdcontrol(1)