NAME

       setupcon - sets up the font and the keyboard on the console

SYNOPSIS

       setupcon [OPTION]... [VARIANT]

DESCRIPTION

       setupcon is a program for fast and easy setup of the font and the keyboard on the console.
       Most of the time you invoke setupcon without arguments.   The  keyboard  configuration  is
       specified in ~/.keyboard or /etc/default/keyboard.  The font configuration is specified in
       ~/.console-setup or /etc/default/console-setup.  Consult keyboard(5) and  console-setup(5)
       for instructions how to configure these two files.

       If  you  have to switch often between different encodings, keyboards or languages, you can
       prepare several alternative configuration files for setupcon.  Suppose that  most  of  the
       time  you  will  use  Greek language with Greek keyboard layout, but sometimes you need to
       type in German with German keyboard layout.  In this situation you  should  customize  the
       main configuration files (keyboard and console-setup) for Greek.  Also, create alternative
       configuration files for German named keyboard.german and  console-setup.german.   Then  in
       order  to  configure  the  console  for  Greek  you  will  simply  run the command with no
       arguments: setupcon and in order  to  configure  the  console  for  German  you  will  use
       setupcon german.

OPTIONS

       VARIANT
              Specifies  which  configuration  file  to  use.  With no variant, the configuration
              files of setupcon are named console-setup and keyboard.  On the other hand, if  you
              use e.g.  chukchi as VARIANT then the configuration files are console-setup.chukchi
              and keyboard.chukchi.  In this way you can have easy access  to  several  different
              configurations  -  for  example  one  for  the Chukchi language and another for the
              default configuration.

       -v, --verbose
              Be more verbose.   Use this option if something goes wrong or  while  experimenting
              with the configuration files.

       -k, --keyboard-only
              Setup  the  keyboard  only,  do not setup the font or the terminal.  On Linux it is
              enough to do this configuration only once.

       -f, --font-only
              Setup the font only, do not setup the keyboard or  the  terminal.   On  Linux  this
              configuration  should  be repeated each time a new console driver is activated (for
              example when the frame buffer becomes active).

       -t, --terminal-only
              Setup the terminal only, do not setup the keyboard or the font.

       --current-tty
              Setup the only the current virtual terminal.

       --force
              Do not check whether we are on the console.  Notice that you can be forced to hard-
              reboot  your  computer  if  you  run  setupcon  with  this option and the screen is
              controlled by a X server.

       --save This option can be useful if you want to use setupcon early  in  the  boot  process
              while /usr is not yet mounted and the required data are not available.  This option
              will make setupcon copy the required files in /etc/console-setup/ in order to  make
              them  available  before  /usr  is  mounted.   If you use setupcon early in the boot
              process, then you should run it with this option after every change of the  console
              configuration.

       --save-only
              The  same as --save, but does not setup anything.  This option can be useful if you
              want to save the required files while the screen is controlled by a X server.

       --save-keyboard FILE
              For use by initrd builders.  Do not configure anything.  Save  an  usable  keyboard
              layout in FILE.

       --setup-dir DIR
              For  use  by initrd builders.  Do not configure anything.  Arrange in the directory
              DIR everything necessary in order to configure the console.  The file DIR/morefiles
              lists  all  binaries  the  initrd  builder has to install in the initrd image.  All
              other files in DIR have to  be  copied  unchanged  in  the  initrd.   In  order  to
              configure the console one has to run the script DIR/bin/setupcon.

       -h, --help
              Display usage information.

FILES

       ~/.console-setup
       ~/.keyboard
       /etc/default/console-setup
       /etc/default/keyboard
       /etc/default/console-setup.VARIANT
       /etc/default/keyboard.VARIANT
       /etc/console-setup/

SEE ALSO

       keyboard(5), console-setup(5)