# Console tools

---

# Console keyboards and fonts

_Peios / Using Peios / Console tools_

> Use kbd to inspect and configure a Linux virtual console on Peios.

`org.kernel.kbd` supplies the upstream kbd console tools. Its matching
`org.kernel.kbd-common` package supplies keymaps, fonts, translations and
manual pages. Console data lives under `/usr/share/kbd`.

These tools operate on Linux virtual consoles: the text screens associated
with devices such as `/dev/tty1`. They do not configure a keyboard layout in
an SSH client, a serial terminal, or a graphical application.

## Inspect a keymap without applying it

Generate a binary keymap from the installed UK layout:

```sh
loadkeys --bkeymap uk > uk.bmap
```

This parses the map and its includes without changing the console. The
package also includes layouts such as `us`, `de` and `fr`.

## Configure a console

With a token authorized for the console operation, apply a keyboard map or
load a font:

```sh
loadkeys -C /dev/tty1 uk
setfont -C /dev/tty1 Lat2-Terminus16
```

The kernel determines access. Installing kbd does not grant console
privileges, and the tools are not installed setuid. Keymap changes can
affect other virtual consoles; selecting a device is not a promise of a
separate per-session keyboard layout.

## The machine's console layout

A layout loaded with `loadkeys` lasts until the next boot. The one the
machine starts with is `Machine\System\Console Keymap`, a keymap name such
as `uk`, `de` or `dvorak`, loaded at boot by the `console-keymap` service.
Absent, it is the kernel's built-in US layout.

In **System Settings**, in the **Language & Keyboard** section, **Layout**
under **Console Keyboard** offers installed console layouts, grouped by
kind (QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and the rest). Choosing one saves the value;
when the service is available and you may restart it, the app also requests
a `console-keymap` restart to load it. In a terminal:

```sh
reg set Machine/System/Console Keymap sz:uk
svctl restart console-keymap
```

Changing it needs write access to `Machine\System\Console`, which as
shipped only Administrators have, and loading it at once needs the right
to restart the service. Without that right, a configured boot-triggered
`console-keymap` service can apply it at the next boot. On a custom image
without that service, saving the preference does not arrange for it to be
loaded, now or at boot; System Settings reports that condition.

A saved value or an accepted restart request is not proof that the loader
finished. Check the [service status](/peios/using-peios/services-and-jobs/controlling-services.md)
and [output](/peios/using-peios/services-and-jobs/output-and-logging.md) if it does not take
effect, and verify the layout at the machine's text console. Only a name is
accepted, never a path. A name that is not a keymap leaves the layout as it
was, and the service logs why.

This is the keyboard plugged into the machine, on its text consoles. The
desktop's keyboard is the browser's, and a terminal over SSH uses the
computer it is typed on.

`dumpkeys` inspects the current map, `kbd_mode` inspects or changes the
keyboard mode, and `fgconsole` reports the active virtual console. `chvt`
switches consoles. Switching to a console does not create a login session.

## Package scope

Installation does not select a keymap or font, or start additional login
prompts. The package ships the `console-keymap` service as a registry seed,
which does nothing until an image applies it; the Experimental edition
does. Persistent console fonts require separate system configuration.

kbd does not create login prompts. The Experimental edition provides
independent sessions on `tty1`, `tty2` and `tty3`; see
[multiple local consoles](/peios/using-peios/signing-in/the-login-command.md#multiple-local-consoles)
for the login services and how to switch between them.

The PAM-based `vlock` screen locker and optional XKB-to-console conversion
are disabled. Native kbd keymaps remain available. `openvt` is a process
launcher for a virtual console. It preserves the caller's Peios token and
the console device's existing security descriptor. It does not grant an
identity or authenticate a user. Its `--user` mode is explicitly rejected
on Peios; that upstream mode infers a numeric user and invokes `login -f`. Use peinit and the authenticated login
service for managed login sessions.

The `-debuginfo`, `-debugsource` and `-source` packages provide debugging
symbols, referenced source files and corresponding source respectively.