NAME
kbd_mode - report or set the keyboard mode
SYNOPSIS
kbd_mode [ -auks ]
DESCRIPTION
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.
SEE ALSO
loadkeys(1), consolechars(8).