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)