1. Useful programs

The following packages contain keyboard or console related programs.

kbd-0.95.tar.gz contains loadkeys, dumpkeys, showkey, setmetamode, setleds, setfont, showfont, mapscrn, kbd_mode, loadunimap, chvt, resizecons, deallocvt, getkeycodes, setkeycodes.

util-linux-2.6 contains setterm, kbdrate. (Yes, the more in util-linux-2.6 dumps core due to a name conflict. Preserve your old copy, or use util-linux-2.5, or change `savetty' to `my_savetty' in more.c.)

sh-utils-1.12 contains stty.

open-1.4.tgz contains open (that should be renamed to openvt). (See also dynamic-vc-1.1.tar.gz.)

SVGATextMode-1.8.tar.gz contains SVGATextMode, a program that obsoletes resizecons.

The X distribution contains xmodmap, xset, kbd_mode. (See also X386keybd(1) for the situation under XFree86 1.3, and Xserver(1) for the XKEYBOARD extension under X11R6.)

termcap-2.0.8.tar.gz contains termcap, an old terminal capabilities data base. ncurses-1.9.9e.tar.gz contains the termlib data base which obsoletes termcap. (However, there are still many programs using termcap.)

See loadkeys(1), setleds(1) and setmetamode(1) for the codes generated by the various keys and the setting of leds when not under X. Under X, see xmodmap(1) and xset(1).

See setfont(8) for loading console fonts. Many people will want to load a font like iso01.f16 because the default font is the hardware font of the video card, and often is a `Code Page 437' font missing accented characters and other Latin-1 symbols.

See setterm(1) and kbdrate(8) for properties such as foreground and background colors, screen blanking and character repeat rate when not under X. Under X, see xset(1), also for key click and bell volume.

The file /etc/termcap defines the escape sequences used by many programs addressing the console (or any other terminal). See termcap(5). A more modern version is found in /usr/lib/terminfo. See terminfo(5). Terminfo files are compiled by the terminfo compiler /usr/lib/terminfo/tic, see tic(1). Their contents can be examined using the program infocmp, see infocmp(1). The Linux console sequences are documented in console_codes(4).