Manual: setkeycodes

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 scancodes e0 xx (8+7
       bits).  To these scancodes or scancode pairs, a corresponding keycode can be assigned (in the range 1-127).  For	 ex‐
       ample, 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 un‐
       der X.

SEE ALSO
       dumpkeys(1), loadkeys(1), showkey(1), getkeycodes(8)

kbd						       24 October 2024					      SETKEYCODES(8)