.\"Copyright (C) 2007, 2011 Anton Zinoviev <anton@lml.bas.bg>
.\"
.\"Copying and distribution of this file, with or without
.\"modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided
.\"the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.  This file is
.\"offered as-is, without any warranty.
.\"
.TH SETUPCON 1 2011-03-17 console-setup "Console-setup User's Manual"

.SH NAME
setupcon \- sets up the font and the keyboard on the console

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B setupcon
.RI [ OPTION ]...\ [ VARIANT ]

.SH DESCRIPTION
.B setupcon
is a program for fast and easy setup of the font and the keyboard on
the console.  Most of the time you invoke
.B setupcon
without arguments.  The keyboard configuration is specified in
.I ~/.keyboard
or
.IR /etc/default/keyboard .
The font configuration is specified in
.I ~/.console-setup
or
.IR /etc/default/console-setup .
Consult
.BR keyboard (5)
and
.BR console-setup (5)
for instructions how to configure these two files.
.P
If you have to switch often between different encodings, keyboards or
languages, you can prepare several alternative configuration files for
.BR 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
.nh
.RI ( keyboard " and " console-setup )
.hy
for Greek.  Also, create alternative configuration files for German
named
.nh
.IR keyboard.german " and " console-setup.german .
.hy
Then in order to configure the console for Greek you will simply run
the command with no arguments:
.I setupcon
and in order to configure the console for German you will use
.nh
.IR setupcon\ german .
.hy


.SH OPTIONS

.TP
.IR VARIANT
Specifies which configuration file to use.  With no variant,
the configuration files of
.B setupcon
are named
.IR console-setup " and " keyboard .
On the other hand, if you use e.g.
.I chukchi
as
.I VARIANT
then the configuration files are
.IR 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 default configuration.

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

.TP
.BR -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.

.TP
.BR -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).

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

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

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

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

.TP
.BR --save-only
The same as
.IR --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.

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

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

.TP
.BR -h ,\  --help
Display usage information.

.SH FILES
.I ~/.console-setup
.br
.I ~/.keyboard
.br
.I /etc/default/console-setup
.br
.I /etc/default/keyboard
.br
.I /etc/default/console-setup.VARIANT
.br
.I /etc/default/keyboard.VARIANT
.br
.I /etc/console-setup/

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR keyboard (5),
.BR console-setup (5)