kbdinfo(1) — Linux manual page

KBDINFO(1)               General Commands Manual               KBDINFO(1)

NAME         top

       kbdinfo - read information about keyboard state

SYNOPSIS         top

       kbdinfo [options] getmode [text|graphics]
       kbdinfo [options] gkbmode [raw|xlate|mediumraw|unicode]
       kbdinfo [options] gkbmeta [metabit|escprefix]
       kbdinfo [options] gkbled  [scrolllock|numlock|capslock]

DESCRIPTION         top

       The utility allows you to read and check various parameters of the
       keyboard and virtual console.

       getmode  Get or check virtual console mode.

       gkbmode  Gets current keyboard mode.

              raw    Raw (scancode) mode. These are the raw codes
                     generated by the keyboard.

              mediumraw
                     Medium raw (scancode) mode. This is extended medium
                     raw mode, with keys above 127 encoded as 0, high 7
                     bits, low 7 bits, with the 0 bearing the 'up' flag
                     if needed. 0 is reserved, so this shouldn't
                     interfere with anything else. The two bytes after 0
                     will always have the up flag set not to interfere
                     with older applications. This allows for 16384
                     different keycodes, which should be enough.

              xlate  Translate keycodes using keymap. These are the codes
                     generated via the current keysym mapping.

              unicode
                     Unicode mode.

       gkbmeta  Gets meta key handling mode.

              escprefix
                     Specifies if pressing the meta (alt) key generates
                     an ESC (\033) prefix followed by the keysym.

              metabit
                     The keysym marked with the high bit set.

       gkbled   Get keyboard flags CapsLock, NumLock, ScrollLock (not
                lights).

              scrolllock
                     The scroll lock is down.

              numlock
                     The num lock is down.

              capslock
                     The caps lock is down.

OPTIONS         top

       -C, --console=DEV
              the console device to be used.

       -V, --version
              print version number.

       -h, --help
              print this usage message.

AUTHORS         top

       Written by Alexey Gladkov.

SEE ALSO         top

       kbdrate(1), setleds(1), kbd_mode(1)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the kbd (Linux keyboard tools) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.kbd-project.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, send it to [email protected].  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/legionus/kbd.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-07-01.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

kbd                             June 2019                      KBDINFO(1)

Pages that refer to this page: setmetamode(1)

HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH.