This section discusses how to configure the console bootscript that sets up the keyboard map and the console font. If non-ASCII characters (e.g., the British pound sign and Euro character) will not be used and the keyboard is a U.S. one, skip this section. Without the configuration file, the console bootscript will do nothing.
The console script
reads the /etc/sysconfig/console
file
for configuration information. Decide which keymap and screen font
will be used. Various language-specific HOWTO's can also help with
this (see http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/other-lang.html.
A pre-made /etc/sysconfig/console
file
with known settings for several countries was installed with the
CLFS-Bootscripts package, so the relevant section can be uncommented
if the country is supported. If still in doubt, look in the
/lib/kbd
directory for valid keymaps
and screen fonts. Read loadkeys(1)
and
setfont(8)
to determine the correct
arguments for these programs. Once decided, create the configuration
file with the following command:
cat >/etc/sysconfig/console <<"EOF"
KEYMAP="[arguments for loadkeys]
"
FONT="[arguments for setfont]
"
EOF
For example, for Spanish users who also want to use the Euro character (accessible by pressing AltGr+E), the following settings are correct:
cat >/etc/sysconfig/console <<"EOF"
KEYMAP="es euro2"
FONT="lat9-16 -u iso01"
EOF
The FONT
line above is correct only for
the ISO 8859-15 character set. If using ISO 8859-1 and, therefore,
a pound sign instead of Euro, the correct FONT
line would be:
FONT="lat1-16"
If the KEYMAP
or FONT
variable is not set, the console initscript will not run the
corresponding program.
In some keymaps, the Backspace and Delete keys send characters different from ones in the default keymap built into the kernel. This confuses some applications. For example, Emacs displays its help (instead of erasing the character before the cursor) when Backspace is pressed. To check if the keymap in use is affected (this works only for i386 keymaps):
zgrep '\W14\W' [/path/to/your/keymap]
If the keycode 14 is Backspace instead of Delete, create the following keymap snippet to fix this issue:
mkdir -pv /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
Tell the console script to load this snippet after the main keymap:
cat >>/etc/sysconfig/console <<"EOF"
KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="/etc/kbd/bs-sends-del"
EOF