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



NAME
       kbdrate - reset the keyboard repeat rate and delay time

SYNOPSIS
       kbdrate [options...]

DESCRIPTION
       kbdrate is used to change the keyboard repeat rate and delay time. The delay is the amount of
       time that a key must be depressed before it will start to repeat.

       Using kbdrate without any options will reset the repeat rate to 10.9  characters  per  second
       (cps)  and  the  delay to 250 milliseconds (ms) for Intel- and M68K-based systems.  These are
       the IBM defaults. On SPARC-based systems it will reset the repeat rate to 5 cps and the delay
       to 200 ms.


OPTIONS
       -r, --rate=NUMBER
              Change  the keyboard repeat rate to NUMBER cps. For Intel-based systems, the allowable
              range is from 2.0 to 30.0 cps.  Only certain, specific values are  possible,  and  the
              program will select the nearest possible value to the one specified. The possible val‐
              ues are given, in characters per second, as follows: 2.0, 2.1,  2.3,  2.5,  2.7,  3.0,
              3.3,  3.7,  4.0,  4.3,  4.6, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.7, 7.5, 8.0, 8.6, 9.2, 10.0, 10.9, 12.0,
              13.3, 15.0, 16.0, 17.1, 18.5, 20.0, 21.8, 24.0, 26.7, 30.0.  For SPARC-based  systems,
              the allowable range is from 0 (no repeat) to 50 cps.

       -d, --delay=NUMBER
              Change the delay to NUMBER milliseconds.  For Intel-based systems, the allowable range
              is from 250 to 1000 ms, in 250 ms steps. For SPARC systems, possible  values  are  be‐
              tween 10 ms and 1440 ms, in 10 ms steps.

       -s, --silent
              Silent. No messages are printed.

       -h, --help
              Display a help text.

       -V, --version
              Display a version number and exit.

BUGS
       Not all keyboards support all rates.

       Not all keyboards have the rates mapped in the same way.

       Setting  the  repeat  rate  on  the Gateway AnyKey keyboard does not work.  If someone with a
       Gateway figures out how to program the keyboard, please send mail to util-linux AT math.no.

       All this is very architecture dependent.  Nowadays kbdrate first tries the KDKBDREP and KIOC‐
       SRATE  ioctls.   (The  former  usually  works on an m68k/i386 machine, the latter for SPARC.)
       When these ioctls fail an ioport interface.

FILES
       /etc/rc.local
       /dev/port



kbd                                         22 June 1994                                  KBDRATE(8)