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 arguments: se‐
       tupcon 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 an‐
              other for the default configuration.

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

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

       -f, --font-only
              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).

       -t, --terminal-only
              Setup the terminal only, do not setup the keyboard or the font.

       --current-tty
              Setup the only the current virtual terminal.

       --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 controlled 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 re‐
              quired 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 anything.  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 other 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)