Provided by: console-setup_1.194ubuntu3_all 
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)