KBDRATE(8) System Manager's Manual KBDRATE(8)
NAME
kbdrate - reset the keyboard repeat rate and delay time
SYNOPSIS
kbdrate [options...]
DESCRIPTION
kbdrate is used to change the keyboard repeat rate and delay time. The
delay is the amount of time that a key must be depressed before it will
start to repeat.
Using kbdrate without any options will reset the repeat rate to 10.9
characters per second (cps) and the delay to 250 milliseconds (ms) for
Intel- and M68K-based systems. These are the IBM defaults. On SPARC-
based systems it will reset the repeat rate to 5 cps and the delay to
200 ms.
OPTIONS
-r, --rate=NUMBER
Change the keyboard repeat rate to NUMBER cps. For Intel-based
systems, the allowable range is from 2.0 to 30.0 cps. Only cer-
tain, specific values are possible, and the program will select
the nearest possible value to the one specified. The possible
values are given, in characters per second, as follows: 2.0, 2.1,
2.3, 2.5, 2.7, 3.0, 3.3, 3.7, 4.0, 4.3, 4.6, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.7,
7.5, 8.0, 8.6, 9.2, 10.0, 10.9, 12.0, 13.3, 15.0, 16.0, 17.1,
18.5, 20.0, 21.8, 24.0, 26.7, 30.0. For SPARC-based systems, the
allowable range is from 0 (no repeat) to 50 cps.
-d, --delay=NUMBER
Change the delay to NUMBER milliseconds. For Intel-based sys-
tems, the allowable range is from 250 to 1000 ms, in 250 ms
steps. For SPARC systems, possible values are between 10 ms and
1440 ms, in 10 ms steps.
-s, --silent
Silent. No messages are printed.
-h, --help
Display a help text.
-V, --version
Display a version number and exit.
BUGS
Not all keyboards support all rates.
Not all keyboards have the rates mapped in the same way.
Setting the repeat rate on the Gateway AnyKey keyboard does not work.
If someone with a Gateway figures out how to program the keyboard,
please send mail to util-linux@math.uio.no.
All this is very architecture dependent. Nowadays kbdrate first tries
the KDKBDREP and KIOCSRATE ioctls. (The former usually works on an
m68k/i386 machine, the latter for SPARC.) When these ioctls fail an io-
port interface.
FILES
/etc/rc.local
/dev/port
kbd 22 June 1994 KBDRATE(8)
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