MAN page from Old RedHat 5.X kbd-0.94-6.i386.rpm

SETKEYCODES

Section: Keyboard Support (8)
Updated: 8 Nov 1994
Index

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

setkeycodesscancode keycode ...

DESCRIPTION

Thesetkeycodescommand reads its arguments two at a time, each pair of argumentsconsisting of a scancode (given in hexadecimal) and a keycode (givenin decimal). For each such pair, it tells the kernel keyboard driverto 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 notrecognize.

THEORY

The usual PC keyboard produces a series of scancodes for eachkey press and key release. (Scancodes are shown byshowkey -s, see showkey(1).)The kernel parses this stream of scancodes, and converts it toa stream of keycodes (key press/release events).(Keycodes are shown by showkey.)Apart from a few scancodes with special meaning, and apart fromthe sequence produced by the Pause key, and apart from shiftstaterelated scancodes, and apart from the key up/down bit,the stream of scancodes consists of unescapedscancodes 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) acorresponding keycode can be assigned (in the range 1-127).For example, if you have a Macro key that produces e0 6f accordingto showkey(1), the command

: setkeycodes e06f 112

will assign the keycode 112 to it, and then loadkeys(1) can be usedto 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.

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