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15 <H2><A NAME="s1">1. Useful programs</A></H2>
19 programs!keyboard-related
23 programs!console-related
27 keyboard!programs related to
31 console!programs related to
33 <P>The following packages contain keyboard or console related programs.
34 <P><CODE>kbd-1.06.tar.gz</CODE> contains <CODE>loadkeys</CODE>, <CODE>dumpkeys</CODE>, <CODE>showkey</CODE>,
35 <CODE>setmetamode</CODE>, <CODE>setleds</CODE>, <CODE>setfont</CODE>, <CODE>showconsolefont</CODE>,
36 <CODE>mapscrn</CODE>, <CODE>kbd_mode</CODE>, <CODE>kbdrate</CODE>, <CODE>loadunimap</CODE>, <CODE>chvt</CODE>,
37 <CODE>resizecons</CODE>, <CODE>deallocvt</CODE>, <CODE>getkeycodes</CODE>, <CODE>setkeycodes</CODE>.
38 It also contains <CODE>openvt</CODE>, formerly called <CODE>open</CODE>.
39 <P>There exists a clone of the kbd package, namely <CODE>console-tools</CODE>,
40 that contains more or less the same stuff. The latest version,
41 <CODE>console-tools-0.3.3</CODE> is roughly up-to-date with <CODE>kbd-0.99</CODE>.
42 <P><CODE>SVGATextMode-1.10</CODE> contains <CODE>SVGATextMode</CODE>, a program that
43 obsoletes <CODE>resizecons</CODE>.
44 <P><CODE>util-linux-2.11</CODE> contains <CODE>setterm</CODE>.
45 <P><CODE>sh-utils-1.12</CODE> contains <CODE>stty</CODE>.
46 <P>See also <CODE>dynamic-vc-1.2.tar.gz</CODE> and <CODE>consd-1.3.tgz</CODE> for
47 programs that exploit the `Keyboard Signal' key. Very primitive
48 versions are <CODE>spawn_login</CODE> or <CODE>spawn_console</CODE> found in the kbd package.
50 <A HREF="http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday/font.tgz">font.tgz</A>
51 for a package that handles console fonts.
52 <P>Packages like <CODE>recode</CODE> and <CODE>konwert-1.8</CODE> allow one to convert
53 between different character encodings.
55 <P>The X distribution contains <CODE>xmodmap</CODE>, <CODE>xset</CODE>, <CODE>kbd_mode</CODE>.
56 (See also X386keybd(1) for the situation under XFree86 1.3,
57 and Xserver(1) for the XKEYBOARD extension under X11R6.)
58 A handy interface to <CODE>xmodmap</CODE> is <CODE>xkeycaps</CODE>, see
59 <A HREF="www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/">http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/</A>.
60 <P><CODE>termcap-2.0.8.tar.gz</CODE> contains <CODE>termcap</CODE>, an old terminal
61 capabilities data base. <CODE>ncurses-1.9.9e.tar.gz</CODE> contains the
62 <CODE>termlib</CODE> data base which obsoletes <CODE>termcap</CODE>. (However,
63 there are still many programs using <CODE>termcap</CODE>.)
64 <P>See loadkeys(1), setleds(1) and setmetamode(1) for the codes generated by the
65 various keys and the setting of leds when not under X. Under X, see xmodmap(1)
67 <P>See setfont(8) for loading console fonts. Many people will want to
68 load a font like <CODE>iso01.f16</CODE> because the default font is the
69 hardware font of the video card, and often is a `Code Page 437' font
70 missing accented characters and other Latin-1 symbols.
71 <P>See setterm(1) and kbdrate(8) for properties such as foreground and background
72 colors, screen blanking and character repeat rate when not under X.
73 Under X, see xset(1), also for key click and bell volume.
74 <P>The file <CODE>/etc/termcap</CODE> defines the escape sequences
75 used by many programs addressing the console (or any other terminal).
77 A more modern version is found in <CODE>/usr/lib/terminfo</CODE>.
78 See terminfo(5). Terminfo files are compiled
79 by the terminfo compiler <CODE>/usr/lib/terminfo/tic</CODE>, see tic(1).
80 Their contents can be examined using the program <CODE>infocmp</CODE>,
82 <P>The Linux console sequences are documented in console_codes(4).
83 <P>The package <CODE>funkey</CODE> by Rick van Rein provides support
84 for all these new keys modern keyboards have. See
85 <A HREF="http://rick.vanrein.org/linux/funkey">rick.vanrein.org/linux/funkey</A>.
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