SETKEYCODES(8) System Manager's Manual SETKEYCODES(8)
NAME
setkeycodes - load kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries
SYNOPSIS
setkeycodes [options] scancode keycode ...
DESCRIPTION
The setkeycodes command reads its arguments two at a time, each pair of
arguments consisting of a scancode (given in hexadecimal) and a keycode
(given in decimal). For each such pair, it tells the kernel keyboard
driver to map the specified scancode to the specified keycode.
This command is useful only for people with slightly unusual keyboards,
that have a few keys which produce scancodes that the kernel does not
recognize.
THEORY
The usual PC keyboard produces a series of scancodes for each key press
and key release. (Scancodes are shown by showkey -s, see showkey(1) )
The kernel parses this stream of scancodes, and converts it to a stream
of keycodes (key press/release events). (Keycodes are shown by
showkey.) Apart from a few scancodes with special meaning, and apart
from the sequence produced by the Pause key, and apart from shiftstate
related scancodes, and apart from the key up/down bit, the stream of
scancodes consists of unescaped scancodes xx (7 bits) and escaped scan-
codes e0 xx (8+7 bits). To these scancodes or scancode pairs, a corre-
sponding keycode can be assigned (in the range 1-127). For example, if
you have a Macro key that produces e0 6f according to showkey(1), the
command
setkeycodes e06f 112
will assign the keycode 112 to it, and then loadkeys(1) can be used to
define the function of this key.
Some older kernels might hardwire a low scancode range to the equivalent
keycodes; setkeycodes will fail when you try to remap these.
2.6 KERNELS
In 2.6 kernels key codes lie in the range 1-255, instead of 1-127. (It
might be best to confine oneself to the range 1-239.)
In 2.6 kernels raw mode, or scancode mode, is not very raw at all. The
code returned by showkey -s will change after use of setkeycodes. A
kernel bug. See also showkey(1).
OPTIONS
-C, --console=DEV
the console device to be used.
-V, --version
print version number.
-h, --help
print this usage message.
BUGS
The keycodes of X have nothing to do with those of Linux. Unusual keys
can be made visible under Linux, but not under X.
SEE ALSO
dumpkeys(1), loadkeys(1), showkey(1), getkeycodes(8)
kbd 24 October 2024 SETKEYCODES(8)
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