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
       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)