KBDMAP(1)

💅 kbdmap & vidfont: console keyboard-map/font glow-up utilities ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the kbdmap(1) page from the General Commands Manual. This is the manual for kbdmap and vidfont, the system video console keyboard map/font dialog utilities — lowkey iconic little terminal matchmakers for your keymaps and fonts.

🌸 NAME 🌸

kbdmap, vidfont — system video console keyboard map/font dialog utilities.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

kbdmap [-K] [-V] [-d | -default] [-h | -help] [-l | -lang language]
       [-p | -print] [-r | -restore] [-s | -show] [-v | -verbose]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so here's the tea: kbdmap lets you easily set available keymaps. vidfont is the one for setting fonts. Both of them examine a database for the keymaps and fonts. Descriptions are in English by default, but they may also be in other languages. These programs are interactive, so they expect to run in a terminal and get required input from you (e.g., a keymap selection). No drive-by config, bestie — they need your actual vibe check.

🚨 Real talk warning: it is strongly recommended to not choose MSDOS codepage keymaps or fonts. Use the ISO standard version if available! X11 does not support MSDOS codepage.

The following options are available:

• -K — Run as command kbdmap.
• -V — Run as command vidfont.
• -d, -default — Use default language. Ignore LANG environment variable.
• -h, -help — Print options and exit.
• -l, -lang language — Use language for description and menu.
• -p, -print — Print description of available keymaps or fonts to stdout and exit.
• -r, -restore — Load default font from /etc/rc.conf.
• -s, -show — Show currently supported languages and exit.
• -v, -verbose — More warnings.

🦋 ENVIRONMENT 🦋

• LANG — preferred language. That's the language mood ring for this whole situation.

🧚 FILES 🧚

• /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/INDEX.keymaps
• /usr/share/vt/keymaps/INDEX.keymaps — together these are the database for keymaps.
• /usr/share/syscons/fonts/INDEX.fonts
• /usr/share/vt/fonts/INDEX.fonts — together these are the database for fonts.
• /etc/rc.conf — default font.
• /usr/local/share/locale/locale.alias — describe common LANG values.

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

Go say hi to: dialog(1), kbdcontrol(1), vidcontrol(1), syscons(4), vt(4), kbdmap(5), rc.conf(5). iykyk 💅

👑 HISTORY 👑

The kbdmap and vidfont commands appeared in FreeBSD 2.1. Vintage, but still slaying.

💜 AUTHORS 💜

• Wolfram Schneider <wosch@FreeBSD.org> wrote the original Perl version.
• The current version was rewritten in C by Jonathan Belson <jon@witchspace.com> for FreeBSD 5.0.

💀 BUGS 💀

The kbdmap and vidfont utilities work only on a (virtual) console and not with X11. So if you're in X11, these besties are not coming to the party. 😭

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Catch you on the console, bestie 🎀 — this page is from the Debian source/version, dated July 7, 2024 (you know the KBDMAP(1) footer energy). 💖