Kbd

For installation instructions see the Section called Installing Kbd-1.08 in Chapter 6.

Official Download Location

Kbd (1.08): 
ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/utils/kbd/

Kbd Patch (1.08):
http://downloads.linuxfromscratch.org/

Contents of Kbd

(Last checked against version 1.06.)

Kbd contains keytable files and keyboard utilities.

Kbd installs the following:

Program Files

chvt, deallocvt, dumpkeys, fgconsole, getkeycodes, getunimap, kbd_mode, kbdrate, loadkeys, loadunimap, mapscrn, openvt, psfaddtable (link to psfxtable), psfgettable (link to psfxtable), psfstriptable (link to psfxtable), psfxtable, resizecons, setfont, setkeycodes, setleds, setlogcons, setmetamode, setvesablank, showfont, showkey, unicode_start, and unicode_stop

Descriptions

(Last checked against version 1.06.)

Program file descriptions

chvt changes the foreground virtual terminal.

deallocvt deallocates unused virtual terminals.

dumpkeys dumps the keyboard translation tables.

fgconsole prints the number of the active virtual terminal.

getkeycodes prints the kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table.

getunimap prints the currently used unimap.

kbd_mode reports or sets the keyboard mode.

kbdrate sets the keyboard repeat and delay rates.

loadkeys loads the keyboard translation tables.

loadunimap loads the kernel unicode-to-font mapping table.

mapscrn is an obsolete program that used to load a user-defined output character mapping table into the console driver. This is now done by setfont.

openvt starts a program on a new virtual terminal (VT).

psf* are a set of tools for handling Unicode character tables for console fonts.

resizecons changes the kernel idea of the console size.

setfont lets you change the EGA/VGA fonts on the console.

setkeycodes loads kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries, useful if you have some unusual keys on your keyboard.

setleds sets the keyboard flags and LEDs. Many people find it useful to have NumLock on by default, setleds +num achieves this.

setlogcons sends kernel messages to the console.

setmetamode defines the keyboard meta key handling.

setvesablank lets you fiddle with the built-in hardware screensaver (no toasters, just a blank screen).

showfont displays data about a font, including font properties, character metrics and character bitmaps.

showkey reports the scancodes and keycodes and ASCII codes of the keys pressed on the keyboard.

unicode_start puts the keyboard and console in unicode mode.

unicode_stop reverts keyboard and console from unicode mode.

Kbd Installation Dependencies

(Last checked against version 1.06.)

Bash: sh
Binutils: as, ld, strip
Bison: bison
Coreutils: cp, install, ln, mv, rm, uname
Diffutils: cmp
Flex: flex
GCC: cc1, collect2, cpp0, gcc
Gettext: msgfmt, xgettext
Grep: grep
Gzip: gunzip, gzip
Make: make
Patch: patch
Sed: sed