Questions tagged [keyboard]

General keyboard topics, including keyboard hardware and keyboard functionality in software.

Further reading

1349 questions
976
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How to unfreeze after accidentally pressing Ctrl-S in a terminal?

It's a situation that has happened quite often to me: after I press (with a different intention) Ctrl-S in a terminal, the interaction (input or output) with it is frozen. It's probably a kind of "scroll lock" or whatever. How do I unfreeze the…
imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
  • 16,060
218
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5 answers

What is the point of Ctrl-S?

Ctrl + S stops all output to the terminal which can be restarted with Ctrl + Q . But, why does Ctrl + S exist in the first place? What problem was trying to be solved by putting that control sequence in place?
Jeff King
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137
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10 answers

Keyboard set to "cat mode"

I am a cat-owner and a cat-lover. But I don't like it when my cat sits on my keyboard and pushes randoms keys and messes everything up. I have an idea to have a function key that turns off the keyboard (except for one special key combination). I…
psitae
  • 1,471
123
votes
2 answers

List of terminal generated signals (eg Ctrl-C -> SIGINT)

Where can I find a complete list of the keyboard combinations which send signals in Linux? Eg: Ctrl + C - SIGINT Ctrl + \ - SIGQUIT
Tom Hale
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120
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6 answers

How to get keycodes for xmodmap?

I'm trying to use xmodmap to remap Alt / Super keys on Dell L100 keyboard, and have trouble getting the keycodes. For instance, using xev doesn't give me keycode for Alt FocusOut event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4a00001, mode NotifyGrab,…
Yaroslav Bulatov
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120
votes
2 answers

How do keyboard input and text output work?

Suppose I press the A key in a text editor and this inserts the character a in the document and displays it on the screen. I know the editor application isn't directly communicating with the hardware (there's a kernel and stuff in between), so what…
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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101
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15 answers

How do I get current keyboard layout?

I'm wondering if there is any command line tool that returns the current keyboard layout. I have XkbLayout set to us, ru . Update: setxkbmap returns layout settings, not selected layout. E.g.: $ setxkbmap -print | grep xkb_symbols xkb_symbols {…
Andrew
  • 1,502
95
votes
6 answers

List all valid kbd layouts, variants and toggle options (to use with setxkbmap)

Is there a way from command line to retrieve the list of all available keyboard layouts and relative variants? I need to list all the valid layout/variants choices to be used then from setxkbmap. Also about the layout toggle options, is there a way…
giuspen
  • 1,365
90
votes
3 answers

ESC key causes a small delay in terminal due to its Alt+ behavior

My terminal setup is gnome-terminal + tmux + zsh with vi bindings. In applications like vim or even in the zsh's command line vi editing mode, I need to frequently hit the ESC key but there is a small delay before the effects of this key take place.…
sharat87
  • 4,499
86
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7 answers

On an Apple Keyboard under Linux, how do I make the Function keys work without the fn modifier key?

I use an Apple wired keyboard on Linux. By default the function keys (F1, F2, F3, etc) require the fn key to be pressed for them to work. Without the fn key, these keys control the features like Screen Brightness, Volume, and Music Track Control. Is…
ryanlerch
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73
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7 answers

Is there any reason why I get ^[[A when I press up arrow at the console login screen?

Whenever I'm at the console login, I press up arrow intentionally to see the previously typed commands. But I see this ^[[A . But when I press Ctrl Alt Print Screen Scroll Lock Pause Break Page Up Page Down Win keys doesn't echo any characters. What…
Ruban Savvy
  • 9,041
71
votes
8 answers

AutoHotkey equivalent

Is there an equivalent product/method for AutoHotkey? For those that don't know, it's a product that allows you to program your mouse movements and keyboard. This allows me to "macro" certain functions on programs instead of having to do it…
Meer Borg
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46
votes
15 answers

Keep NumLock always on

I have a standard keyboard with numerical keys on the right side (I guess it's called 104-key keyboard). I want to use the numerical keys only as numerical keys. That means I don't want the NumLock to switch on and off the numerical keys. However,…
Martin Vegter
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43
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12 answers

How to display the current keyboard layout?

Is there a utility that allows to graphically display the current keyboard layout? This can be useful, for example, when writing in a foreign language and having the physical keyboard only indicating the local language (positioning of symbols,…
landroni
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42
votes
1 answer

What happens when Ctrl + Alt + F is pressed?

I am looking for an explanation of what happens in Linux when this key combination is pressed to change the current terminal. In particular, what software component intercepts this key combination and changes the terminal? Is it the kernel? If it is…
user31765
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