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<TITLE>The Linux keyboard and console HOWTO: X</TITLE>
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Contents
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This FAQ/HOWTO is about the Linux keyboard and console, not about X,
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which substitutes its own handling. However, it seems useful to
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document some of the Linux keyboard and console related properties
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of X.
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First of all, when X is started (say using startx or xinit)
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it opens the first unused console, unless the desired console has been
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indicated explicitly, as in xinit -- vt12.
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Note that this will fail when there is no device file /dev/tty12,
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but that it will not fail when the indicated console was in use already.
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When X finishes, it will return to the original console.
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While it is running one can use Ctrl-Alt-Fn to switch to VTn.
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The XFree86 keymap mechanism is much poorer than the Linux mechanism.
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For each keycode there are at most 4 symbols defined, namely for the
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4 keymaps plain, shift, mod, mod+shift. What is the modifier mod?
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It is the one designated by the symbol Mode_switch.
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For example, the command xmodmap keys.dk, where the file
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keys.dk contains
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keycode 64 = Mode_switch
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keycode 113 = Mode_switch
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keycode 38 = a A aring Aring
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keycode 26 = e E ae AE
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keycode 32 = o O oslash Ooblique
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will make both Alt keys into mod keys, so that Alt+a gives å (a-ring), etc.
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(Note the illogical naming of oslash and Ooblique.)
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Such an xmodmap command can be placed in the .xinitrc
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shell script that is executed by default when X is started.
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keymap!initialization by XFree86
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-->
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XFree86!keymap initialization
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-->
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Since version 2.1, XFree86 will initialize its keymap from the Linux keymap,
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as far as possible. However, Linux had 16 entries per key (one for each
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combination of the Shift, AltGr, Ctrl, Alt modifiers) and presently has
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256 entries per key, while X has 4 entries per key (one for each combination
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of Shift, Mod), so some information is necessarily lost.
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First X reads the Xconfig file, where definitions of the LeftAlt, RightAlt,
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RightCtl, ScrollLock keys as Meta, ModeShift, Compose, ModeLock or ScrollLock
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might be found - see X386keybd(1), later XFree86kbd(1).
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For Mod the LeftAlt key is taken, unless RightCtl was defined as ModeShift or
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ModeLock, in which case RightCtl is taken, or RightAlt was so defined, in which
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case RightAlt is taken.
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This determines how the 4 XFree86 meanings of a key are selected from the 16
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Linux meanings.
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Note that Linux today does not distinguish by default between the two Ctrl keys
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or between the two Shift keys. X does distinguish.
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Now the kernel keymap is read and the usually obvious corresponding X
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bindings are made. The bindings for the "action keys" Show_Memory, Show_State,
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Show_Registers, Last_Console, Console_n, Scroll_Backward, Scroll_Forward,
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Caps_On and Boot are ignored, as are the dead diacriticals, and the locks
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(except for ShiftLock), and the "ASCII-x" keys.
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Next, the definitions in the Xconfig file are used. (Thus, a definition
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of Compose in Xconfig will override its value as found in the Linux
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keymap.)
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What happens to the strings associated with the function keys? Nothing,
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X does not have such a concept. (But it is possible to define strings
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for function keys in xterm - note however that the window manager gets the
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keys first.)
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I don't know how to convince xterm that it should use the X keymap
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when Alt is pressed; it seems just to look at its resource eightBitInput,
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and depending on whether that is true or false either set the high order bit
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of the character, or generate an additional Escape character
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(just like setmetamode(1) does for the console).
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