4mSETUPCON24m(1)               Console-setup User's Manual              4mSETUPCON24m(1)

1mNAME0m
       setupcon - sets up the font and the keyboard on the console


1mSYNOPSIS0m
       1msetupcon 22m[4mOPTION24m]... [4mVARIANT24m]


1mDESCRIPTION0m
       1msetupcon  22mis a program for fast and easy setup of the font and the key-
       board on the console.  Most of the time you invoke 1msetupcon 22mwithout ar-
       guments.  The keyboard configuration is  specified  in  4m~/.keyboard24m  or
       4m/usr/local/etc/default/keyboard24m.   The  font configuration is specified
       in 4m~/.console-setup24m or  4m/usr/local/etc/default/console-setup24m.   Consult
       1mkeyboard22m(5)  and  1mconsole-setup22m(5)  for  instructions  how to configure
       these two files.

       If you have to switch often between different encodings,  keyboards  or
       languages,  you can prepare several alternative configuration files for
       1msetupcon22m.  Suppose that most of the time you will  use  Greek  language
       with  Greek  keyboard  layout, but sometimes you need to type in German
       with German keyboard layout.  In this situation  you  should  customize
       the  main  configuration  files (4mkeyboard24m and 4mconsole-setup24m) for Greek.
       Also,  create  alternative  configuration  files   for   German   named
       4mkeyboard.german24m  and  4mconsole-setup.german24m.  Then in order to configure
       the console for Greek you will simply run the  command  with  no  argu-
       ments:  4msetupcon24m  and  in order to configure the console for German you
       will use 4msetupcon24m 4mgerman24m.



1mOPTIONS0m
       4mVARIANT0m
              Specifies which configuration file to use.  With no variant, the
              configuration files of 1msetupcon 22mare named 4mconsole-setup24m and 4mkey-0m
              4mboard24m.  On the other hand, if you use e.g.  4mchukchi24m  as  4mVARIANT0m
              then  the configuration files are 4mconsole-setup.chukchi24m and 4mkey-0m
              4mboard.chukchi24m.  In this way you can have easy access to  several
              different  configurations - for example one for the Chukchi lan-
              guage and another for the default configuration.


       1m-v22m, 1m--verbose0m
              Be more verbose.   Use this option if something  goes  wrong  or
              while experimenting with the configuration files.


       1m-k22m, 1m--keyboard-only0m
              Setup  the keyboard only, do not setup the font or the terminal.
              On Linux it is enough to do this configuration only once.


       1m-f22m, 1m--font-only0m
              Setup the font only, do not setup the keyboard or the  terminal.
              On  Linux  this configuration should be repeated each time a new
              console driver is activated (for example when the  frame  buffer
              becomes active).


       1m-t22m, 1m--terminal-only0m
              Setup the terminal only, do not setup the keyboard or the font.


       1m--current-tty0m
              Setup the only the current virtual terminal.


       1m--force0m
              Do not check whether we are on the console.  Notice that you can
              be  forced to hard-reboot your computer if you run 1msetupcon 22mwith
              this option and the screen is controlled by a X server.


       1m--save 22mThis option can be useful if you want to use 1msetupcon  22mearly  in
              the  boot process while 4m/usr24m is not yet mounted and the required
              data are not available.  This option will make 1msetupcon 22mcopy the
              required files in 4m/etc/console-setup/24m  in  order  to  make  them
              available  before 4m/usr24m is mounted.  If you use 1msetupcon 22mearly in
              the boot process, then you should run it with this option  after
              every change of the console configuration.


       1m--save-only0m
              The  same  as  4m--save24m, but does not setup anything.  This option
              can be useful if you want to save the required files  while  the
              screen is controlled by a X server.


       1m--save-keyboard 4m22mFILE0m
              For use by initrd builders.  Do not configure anything.  Save an
              usable keyboard layout in 4mFILE24m.


       1m--setup-dir 4m22mDIR0m
              For use by initrd builders.  Do not configure anything.  Arrange
              in  the directory 4mDIR24m everything necessary in order to configure
              the console.  The file 4mDIR/morefiles24m lists all binaries the ini-
              trd builder has to install in the initrd image.  All other files
              in 4mDIR24m have to be copied unchanged in the initrd.  In  order  to
              configure  the  console one has to run the script 4mDIR/bin/setup-0m
              4mcon24m.


       1m-h22m, 1m--help0m
              Display usage information.


1mFILES0m
       4m~/.console-setup0m
       4m~/.keyboard0m
       4m/usr/local/etc/default/console-setup0m
       4m/usr/local/etc/default/keyboard0m
       4m/usr/local/etc/default/console-setup.VARIANT0m
       4m/usr/local/etc/default/keyboard.VARIANT0m
       4m/etc/console-setup/0m


1mSEE ALSO0m
       1mkeyboard22m(5), 1mconsole-setup22m(5)

console-setup                     2011-03-17                       4mSETUPCON24m(1)
