SETUPCON(1)                        Console-setup User's Manual                        SETUPCON(1)



NAME
       setupcon - sets up the font and the keyboard on the console


SYNOPSIS
       setupcon [OPTION]... [VARIANT]


DESCRIPTION
       setupcon is a program for fast and easy setup of the font and the keyboard on the console.
       Most of the time you invoke setupcon without arguments.   The  keyboard  configuration  is
       specified in ~/.keyboard or /etc/default/keyboard.  The font configuration is specified in
       ~/.console-setup or /etc/default/console-setup.  Consult keyboard(5) and  console-setup(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 setupcon.  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 (keyboard and console-setup) for Greek.  Also, create alternative
       configuration files for German named keyboard.german and  console-setup.german.   Then  in
       order  to  configure  the  console for Greek you will simply run the command with no argu‐
       ments:  setupcon  and  in  order  to  configure  the  console  for  German  you  will  use
       setupcon german.



OPTIONS
       VARIANT
              Specifies  which  configuration  file  to  use.  With no variant, the configuration
              files of setupcon are named console-setup and keyboard.  On the other hand, if  you
              use e.g.  chukchi as VARIANT then the configuration files are console-setup.chukchi
              and keyboard.chukchi.  In this way you can have easy access  to  several  different
              configurations  -  for example one for the Chukchi language and another for the de‐
              fault configuration.


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


       -k, --keyboard-only
              Setup the keyboard only, do not setup the font.


       -f, --font-only
              Setup the font only, do not setup the keyboard.


       --force
              Do not check whether we are on the console.  Notice that you can be forced to hard-
              reboot your computer if you run setupcon with this option and the  screen  is  con‐
              trolled by a X server.


       --save This  option  can  be  useful if you want to use setupcon early in the boot process
              while /usr is not yet mounted and the required data are not available.  This option
              will  make setupcon copy the required files in /etc/console-setup/ in order to make
              them available before /usr is mounted.  If you  use  setupcon  early  in  the  boot
              process,  then you should run it with this option after every change of the console
              configuration.


       --save-only
              The same as --save, but does not setup the keyboard and the font.  This option  can
              be  useful if you want to save the required files while the screen is controlled by
              a X server.


       --save-keyboard FILE
              For use by initrd builders.  Do not configure anything.  Save  an  usable  keyboard
              layout in FILE.


       --setup-dir DIR
              For  use  by initrd builders.  Do not configure anything.  Arrange in the directory
              DIR everything necessary in order to configure the console.  The file DIR/morefiles
              lists all binaries the initrd builder has to install in the initrd image.  All oth‐
              er files in DIR have to be copied unchanged in the initrd.  In order  to  configure
              the console one has to run the script DIR/bin/setupcon.


       -h, --help
              Display usage information.


FILES
       ~/.console-setup
       ~/.keyboard
       /etc/default/console-setup
       /etc/default/keyboard
       /etc/default/console-setup.VARIANT
       /etc/default/keyboard.VARIANT
       /etc/console-setup/


SEE ALSO
       keyboard(5), console-setup(5)



console-setup                               2011-03-17                                SETUPCON(1)