Keyboard configuration in console

Note: This article covers only basic configuration without modifying layouts, mapping extra keys etc. See Extra Keyboard Keys for these advanced topics.

Keyboard mappings (keymaps) for virtual console, console fonts and console maps are provided by the kbd package (it should already be installed), which also provides many low-level tools for managing virtual console.

Viewing keyboard settings

You can use the following command to view keyboard configuration:

$ localectl status

   System Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8
                  LC_COLLATE=C
       VC Keymap: cz-qwertz
      X11 Layout: cz

Setting keyboard layout

Unlike XKB keyboard layout, which is composed of multiple components, the keyboard layout for virtual console has only one component. Usually one keymap file corresponds to one keyboard layout (the include statement can be used to share common parts and a keymap file can contain multiple layouts with some key combination used for switching). The keymap files are stored in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/ directory tree. You can use the following command to list all available keymaps:

$ localectl list-keymaps

Persistent configuration

High-level configuration can be done in /etc/vconsole.conf, which is read by systemd on start-up. The KEYMAP variable is used for specifying keymap. If the variable is empty or not set, the us keymap is used as default value. See man 5 vconsole.conf for all options. For example:

/etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=cz-qwertz
...

For convenience, localectl may be used to set console keymap. It will change the KEYMAP variable in /etc/vconsole.conf and set the keymap for current session. For example:

$ localectl set-keymap --no-convert keymap

See man 1 localectl for details.

Temporary configuration

Of course it is possible to set a keymap just for current session. This is useful for testing different keymaps, solving problems etc.

The loadkeys tool is used for this purpose, it is used internally by systemd when loading the keymap configured in /etc/vconsole.conf. It can be used very simply for this purpose:

# loadkeys keymap

See man 1 loadkeys details.

Introduction and basic configuration

The virtual console (keyboard mapping, console font, and console map) is configured in /etc/vconsole.conf. It defines what keymap the keyboard is in the virtual consoles. Keytable files are provided by the kbd package. An example vconsole.conf is shown below:

/etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=us
FONT=lat9w-16
FONT_MAP=8859-1_to_uni

Note: As of systemd-194, the built-in kernel font and the us keymap are used if KEYMAP and FONT are empty or not set.

Another way to set the keyboard mapping (keymap) is using localectl:

# localectl set-keymap de

See man 1 localectl and man 5 vconsole.conf for details.