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SETKEYCODES(8)                         System Manager's Manual                        SETKEYCODES(8)



NAME
       setkeycodes - load kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries

SYNOPSIS
       setkeycodes 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 scan‐
       codes, 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 se‐
       quence 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 pro‐
       duces 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; setkey‐
       codes 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 con‐
       fine 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
       None.

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                                          8 Nov 1994                               SETKEYCODES(8)