NAME
kbdmode - report or set the keyboard mode SYNOPSIS
kbdmode [ -a | -u | -k | -s ] [ -C CONSOLE ] DESCRIPTION Without argument, kbdmode prints the current keyboard mode (RAW, MEDI‐ UMRAW or XLATE). With argument, it sets the keyboard mode as indi‐ cated:
-s: scancode mode (RAW),
-k: keycode mode (MEDIUMRAW),
-a: ASCII mode (XLATE),
-u: UTF-8 mode (UNICODE).
Of course the "-a" is only traditional, and the code used can be any
8-bit character set. With "-u" a 16-bit character set is expected, and these chars are transmitted to the kernel as 1, 2, or 3 bytes (follow‐
ing the UTF-8 coding). In these latter two modes the key mapping defined by loadkeys(1) is used.
kbdmode operates on the console specified by the "-C" option; if there is none, the console associated with stdin is used. Warning: changing the keyboard mode, other than between ASCII and Uni‐ code, will probably make your keyboard unusable. This command is only meant for use (say via remote login) when some program left your key‐ board in the wrong state. Note that in some obsolete versions of this
program the "-u" option was a synonym for "-s". SEE ALSO loadkeys(1) 6 Apr 1994 KBDMODE(1)