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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
%general-entities;
]>
<sect1 id="ch-scripts-console">
<title>Configuring the Linux console</title>
<?dbhtml filename="console.html"?>
<indexterm zone="ch-scripts-console">
<primary sortas="d-console">console</primary>
<secondary>configuring</secondary></indexterm>
<para>In this section we will configure the <command>console</command>
initscript that sets up the keyboard
map and the console font. If you
don't need to use any non-ASCII characters
(British pound and Euro character are not ASCII),
and your keyboard is a US one, you can skip this section.
Without the configuration file,
the <command>console</command> initscript will do nothing.</para>
<para>The <command>console</command> script uses the
<filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename>
as a configuration file. You need to decide which keymap and screen font you
will use. The language-specific HOWTO can help you.
A pre-made
<filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file with known
good settings for several countries was installed with the LFS-Bootscripts
package, and you just have to uncomment
the relevant section if your country is supported (but read the rest
of this section anyway).
If still in doubt,
look into <filename class="directory">/usr/share/kbd</filename>
for valid keymaps and screen fonts. Then read the <command>loadkeys</command>
and <command>setfont</command> manual pages and figure out the correct
arguments for these programs.
Once you decided, create the
configuration file with the following command:</para>
<screen><userinput>cat >/etc/sysconfig/console <<"EOF"
KEYMAP="<replaceable>[arguments for loadkeys]</replaceable>"
FONT="<replaceable>[arguments for setfont]</replaceable>"
EOF</userinput></screen>
<para>E.g., for Spanish users who also want to use the Euro character
(accessible by pressing Alt+E),
the following settings are correct:</para>
<screen><userinput>cat >/etc/sysconfig/console <<"EOF"
KEYMAP="es euro"
FONT="lat9-16 -u iso01"
EOF</userinput></screen>
<note><para>The FONT line above is correct only for the ISO-8859-15
character set. If you prefer ISO-8859-1 and therefore use a pound sign
instead of Euro, the correct FONT line is:</para>
<screen><userinput>FONT="lat1-16"</userinput></screen></note>
<para>If the KEYMAP or FONT variable is not set, the
<command>console</command> initscript will not run the corresponding
program.</para>
<para>In some keymaps, the Backspace and Delete keys send characters
different form ones in the default keymap built into the kernel.
This confuses some applications, e.g., <application>Emacs</application>
displays its help (instead of erasing the character before the cursor)
when you press Backspace. To check if your keymap is affected (this works
only for i386 keymaps):</para>
<screen><userinput>zgrep '\W14\W' <replaceable>[/path/to/your/keymap]</replaceable></userinput></screen>
<para>If you see that keycode 14 is Backspace and not Delete,
create the following keymap snippet to fix this issue:</para>
<screen><userinput>mkdir -p /etc/kbd & & cat >/etc/kbd/bs-sends-del <<"EOF"
keycode 14 = Delete Delete Delete Delete
alt keycode 14 = Meta_Delete
altgr alt keycode 14 = Meta_Delete
keycode 111 = Remove
altgr control keycode 111 = Boot
control alt keycode 111 = Boot
altgr control alt keycode 111 = Boot
EOF</userinput></screen>
<para>Then tell the <command>console</command> script to load this snippet
after the main keymap:</para>
<screen><userinput>cat >>/etc/sysconfig/console <<"EOF"
KEYMAP_CORRECTION="/etc/kbd/bs-sends-del"
EOF</userinput></screen>
<para>If you want to compile your keymap directly into the kernel instead of
setting it every time from the <command>console</command> bootscript, then
instructions are given in <xref linkend="ch-bootable-kernel"/>. Doing this
ensures that your keyboard will always work as expected, even when you boot into
maintenance mode (by passing `init=/bin/sh' to the kernel), as in that
situation, the <command>console</command> bootscript won't be run.</para>
<para>Since the kernel will set up the keymap, you can omit the KEYMAP variable
from the <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> configuration file. If you
wish, you can still have it, this isn't going to hurt you. Keeping it could even
be beneficial, in case you run a lot of different kernels and can't be sure that
the keymap is compiled into every one of them.</para>
</sect1>
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