SETKEYCODES(8)		       Keyboard Support		       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	 key-
       code.

       This  command  is  useful  only	for people with slightly unusual key-
       boards, 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).  It is hardwired in the current
       kernel that in the range 1-88 (0x01-0x58) keycode equals scancode. For
       the  remaining  scancodes  (0x59-0x7f)  or scancode pairs (0xe0 0x00 -
       0xe0 0x7f) 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.

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)





Local				  8 Nov 1994		       SETKEYCODES(8)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. at
2. time
3. which
4. showkey
5. dumpkeys
6. loadkeys
7. getkeycodes