kb(7M) STREAMS Modules kb(7M)NAMEkb - keyboard STREAMS module
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stream.h>
#include <sys/stropts.h>
#include <sys/vuid_event.h>
#include <sys/kbio.h>
#include <sys/kbd.h>
ioctl(fd, I_PUSH, "kb");
DESCRIPTION
The kb STREAMS module processes byte streams generated by a keyboard
attached to a CPU serial port. Definitions for altering keyboard trans‐
lation and reading events from the keyboard are contained in
<sys/kbio.h> and <sys/kbd.h>.
The kb STREAMS module utilizes a set of keyboard tables to recognize
which keys have been typed. Each translation table is an array of 128
16-bit words (unsigned shorts). If a table entry is less than 0x100,
the entry is treated as an ISO 8859/1 character. Higher values indicate
special characters that invoke more complicated actions.
Keyboard Translation Mode
The keyboard can be in one of the following translation modes:
TR_NONE
Keyboard translation is turned off and up/down key codes are
reported.
TR_ASCII
ISO 8859/1 codes are reported.
TR_EVENT
firm_events are reported.
TR_UNTRANS_EVENT
firm_events containing unencoded keystation codes are reported for
all input events within the window system.
Keyboard Translation-Table Entries
All instances of the kb module share seven translation tables that con‐
vert raw keystation codes to event values. The tables are:
Unshifted Used when a key is depressed and no shifts are in
effect.
Shifted Used when a key is depressed and a Shift key is held
down.
Caps Lock Used when a key is depressed and Caps Lock is in
effect.
Alt Graph Used when a key is depressed and the Alt Graph key is
held down.
Num Lock Used when a key is depressed and Num Lock is in effect.
Controlled Used when a key is depressed and the Control key is
held down. (Regardless of whether a Shift key or the
Alt Graph is being held down, or whether Caps Lock or
Num Lock is in effect).
Key Up Used when a key is released.
Each key on the keyboard has a key station code that represents a num‐
ber from 0 to 127. The number is used as an index into the translation
table that is currently in effect. If the corresponding entry in the
translation table is a value from 0 to 255, the value is treated as an
ISO 8859/1 character, and the character is the result of the transla‐
tion.
If the entry in the translation table is higher than 255, it is a spe‐
cial entry. Special entry values are classified according to the value
of the high-order bits. The high-order value for each class is defined
as a constant, as shown below. When added to the constant, the value of
the low-order bits distinguish between keys within each class:
SHIFTKEYS 0x100
A shift key. The value of the particular shift key is added to
determine which shift mask to apply:
CAPSLOCK 0 Caps Lock key.
SHIFTLOCK 1 "Shift Lock" key.
LEFTSHIFT 2 Left-hand Shift key.
RIGHTSHIFT 3 Right-hand Shift key.
LEFTCTRL 4 Left-hand (or only) Control key.
RIGHTCTRL 5 Right-hand Control key.
ALTGRAPH 9 Alt Graph key.
ALT 10 Alternate or Alt key.
NUMLOCK 11 Num Lock key.
BUCKYBITS 0x200
Used to toggle mode-key-up/down status without altering the value
of an accompanying ISO 8859/1 character. The actual bit-position
value, minus 7, is added.
METABIT 0 The Meta key was pressed along with the key. This
is the only user-accessible bucky bit. It is ORed
in as the 0x80 bit; since this bit is a legitimate
bit in a character, the only way to distinguish
between, for example, 0xA0 as META+0x20 and 0xA0
as an 8-bit character is to watch for META key up
and META key down events and keep track of whether
the META key was down.
SYSTEMBIT 1 The System key was pressed. This is a place holder
to indicate which key is the system-abort key.
FUNNY 0x300
Performs various functions depending on the value of the low 4
bits:
NOP 0x300 Does nothing.
OOPS 0x301 Exists, but is undefined.
HOLE 0x302 There is no key in this position on the keyboard,
and the position-code should not be used.
RESET 0x306 Keyboard reset.
ERROR 0x307 The keyboard driver detected an internal error.
IDLE 0x308 The keyboard is idle (no keys down).
COMPOSE 0x309 The COMPOSE key; the next two keys should comprise
a two-character COMPOSE key sequence.
NONL 0x30A Used only in the Num Lock table; indicates that
this key is not affected by the Num Lock state, so
that the translation table to use to translate this
key should be the one that would have been used had
Num Lock not been in effect.
0x30B — 0x30F Reserved for non-parameterized functions.
FA_CLASS 0x400
A floating accent or "dead key." When this key is pressed, the next
key generates an event for an accented character; for example,
"floating accent grave" followed by the "a" key generates an event
with the ISO 8859/1 code for the "a with grave accent" character.
The low-order bits indicate which accent; the codes for the indi‐
vidual "floating accents" are as follows:
FA_UMLAUT 0x400 umlaut
FA_CFLEX 0x401 circumflex
FA_TILDE 0x402 tilde
FA_CEDILLA 0x403 cedilla
FA_ACUTE 0x404 acute accent
FA_GRAVE 0x405 grave accent
STRING 0x500
The low-order bits index a table of strings. When a key with a
STRING entry is depressed, the characters in the null-terminated
string for that key are sent, character-by-character. The maximum
length is defined as:
KTAB_STRLEN 10
Individual string numbers are defined as:
HOMEARROW
0x00
UPARROW
0x01
DOWNARROW
0x02
LEFTARROW
0x03
RIGHTARROW
0x04
String numbers 0x05 — 0x0F are available for custom entries.
FUNCKEYS 0x600
There are 64 keys reserved for function keys. The actual positions
are usually on the left/right/top/bottom of the keyboard.
The next-to-lowest 4 bits indicate the group of function keys:
LEFTFUNC 0x600
RIGHTFUNC 0x610
TOPFUNC 0x610 0x610
BOTTOMFUNC 0x630
The low 4 bits indicate the function key number within the group:
LF(n) (LEFTFUNC+(n)-1)
RF(n) (RIGHTFUNC+(n)-1)
TF(n) (TOPFUNC+(n)-1)
BF(n) (BOTTOMFUNC+(n)-1)
PADKEYS 0x700
A "numeric keypad key." These entries should appear only in the Num
Lock translation table; when Num Lock is in effect, these events
will be generated by pressing keys on the right-hand keypad. The
low-order bits indicate which key. The codes for the individual
keys are:
PADEQUAL 0x700 "=" key
PADSLASH 0x701 "/" key
PADSTAR 0x702 "*" key
PADMINUS 0x703 "-" key
PADSEP 0x704 "," key
PAD7 0x705 "7" key
PAD8 0x706 "8" key
PAD9 0x707 "9" key
PADPLUS 0x708 "+" key
PAD4 0x709 "4" key
PAD5 0x70A "5" key
PAD6 0x70B "6" key
PAD1 0x70C "1" key
PAD2 0x70D "2" key
PAD3 0x70E "3" key
PAD0 0x70F "0" key
PADDOT 0x710 "." key
PADENTER 0x711 "Enter" key
When a function key is pressed in TR_ASCII mode, the following escape
sequence is sent:
ESC[0....9z
where ESC is a single escape character and "0...9" indicates the deci‐
mal representation of the function-key value. For example, function key
R1 sends the sequence:
ESC[208z
because the decimal value of RF(1) is 208. In TR_EVENT mode, if there
is a VUID event code for the function key in question, an event with
that event code is generated; otherwise, individual events for the
characters of the escape sequence are generated.
Keyboard Compatibility Mode
When started, the kb STREAMS module is in the compatibility mode. When
the keyboard is in the TR_EVENT translation mode, ISO 8859/1 characters
from the upper half of the character set (that is, characters with the
eighth bit set) , are presented as events with codes in the ISO_FIRST
range (as defined in <<sys/vuid_event.h>>). For backwards compatibility
with older versions of the keyboard driver, the event code is ISO_FIRST
plus the character value. When compatibility mode is turned off, ISO
8859/1 characters are presented as events with codes equal to the char‐
acter code.
DESCRIPTION
The following ioctl() requests set and retrieve the current translation
mode of a keyboard:
KIOCTRANS Pointer to an int. The translation mode is set to the
value in the int pointed to by the argument.
KIOCGTRANS Pointer to an int. The current translation mode is
stored in the int pointed to by the argument.
ioctl() requests for changing and retrieving entries from the keyboard
translation table use the kiockeymap structure:
struct kiockeymap {
int kio_tablemask; /* Translation table (one of: 0, CAPSMASK,
* SHIFTMASK, CTRLMASK, UPMASK,
* ALTGRAPHMASK, NUMLOCKMASK)
*/
#define KIOCABORT1 -1 /* Special "mask": abort1 keystation */
#define KIOCABORT2 -2 /* Special "mask": abort2 keystation */
uchar_t kio_station; /* Physical keyboard key station (0-127) */
ushort_t kio_entry; /* Translation table station's entry */
char kio_string[10]; /* Value for STRING entries-null terminated */
};
KIOCSKEY Pointer to a kiockeymap structure. The translation ta‐
ble entry referred to by the values in that structure
is changed. The kio_tablemask request specifies which
of the following translation tables contains the entry
to be modified:
UPMASK 0x0080 "Key Up" translation
table.
NUMLOCKMASK 0x0800 "Num Lock" translation
table.
CTRLMASK 0x0030 "Controlled" transla‐
tion table.
ALTGRAPHMASK 0x0200 "Alt Graph" translation
table.
SHIFTMASK 0x000E "Shifted" translation
table.
CAPSMASK 0x0001 "Caps Lock" translation
table.
(No shift keys pressed or locked"Unshifted" translation
table.
The kio_station request specifies the keystation code for the entry to
be modified. The value of kio_entry is stored in the entry in question.
If kio_entry is between STRING and STRING+15, the string contained in
kio_string is copied to the appropriate string table entry. This call
may return EINVAL if there are invalid arguments.
Special values of kio_tablemask can affect the two step "break to the
PROM monitor" sequence. The usual sequence is L1-a or Stop-. If
kio_tablemask is KIOCABORT1, then the value of kio_station is set to be
the first keystation in the sequence. If kio_tablemask, is KIOCABORT2
then the value of kio_station is set to be the second keystation in the
sequence. An attempt to change the "break to the PROM monitor"
sequence without having superuser permission results in an EPERM
error.
KIOCGKEY The argument is a pointer to a kiockeymap structure.
The current value of the keyboard translation table
entry specified by kio_tablemask and kio_station is
stored in the structure pointed to by the argument.
This call may return EINVAL if there are invalid argu‐
ments.
KIOCTYPE The argument is a pointer to an int. A code indicating
the type of the keyboard is stored in the int pointed
to by the argument:
KB_SUN3 Sun Type 3 keyboard
KB_SUN4 Sun Type 4 or 5 keyboard, or non-USB
Sun Type 6 keyboard
KB_USB USB standard HID keyboard, including
Sun Type 6 USB keyboards
KB_ASCII ASCII terminal masquerading as keyboard
KB_PC Type 101 PC keyboard
KB_DEFAULT Stored in the int pointed to by the
argument if the keyboard type is
unknown. In case of error, -1 is stored
in the int pointed to by the argument.
KIOCLAYOUT The argument is a pointer to an int. On a Sun Type 4
keyboard, the layout code specified by the keyboard's
DIP switches is stored in the int pointed to by the
argument.
KIOCCMD The argument is a pointer to an int. The command speci‐
fied by the value of the int pointed to by the argument
is sent to the keyboard. The commands that can be sent
are:
Commands to the Sun Type 3 and Sun Type 4 keyboards:
KBD_CMD_RESET Reset keyboard as if power-up.
KBD_CMD_BELL Turn on the bell.
KBD_CMD_NOBELL Turn off the bell.
KBD_CMD_CLICK Turn on the click annunciator.
KBD_CMD_NOCLICK Turn off the click annunciator.
Commands to the Sun Type 4 keyboard:
KBD_CMD_SETLED Set keyboard LEDs.
KBD_CMD_GETLAYOUT Request that keyboard indicate
layout.
Inappropriate commands for particular keyboard types are ignored. Since
there is no reliable way to get the state of the bell or click (because
the keyboard cannot be queried and a process could do writes to the
appropriate serial driver — circumventing this ioctl() request) an
equivalent ioctl() to query its state is not provided.
KIOCSLED The argument is a pointer to an char. On the Sun Type 4
keyboard, the LEDs are set to the value specified in
that char. The values for the four LEDs are:
LED_CAPS_LOCK "Caps Lock" light.
LED_COMPOSE "Compose" light.
LED_SCROLL_LOCK "Scroll Lock" light.
LED_NUM_LOCK "Num Lock" light.
On some Japanese layouts, the value for the fifth LED
is:
LED_KANA "Kana" light.
KIOCGLED Pointer to a char. The current state of the LEDs is
stored in the char pointed to by the argument.
KIOCSCOMPAT Pointer to an int. "Compatibility mode" is turned on if
the int has a value of 1, and is turned off if the int
has a value of 0.
KIOCGCOMPAT Pointer to an int. The current state of "compatibility
mode" is stored in the int pointed to by the argument.
The following ioctl() request allows the default effect of the keyboard
abort sequence to be changed.
KIOCSKABORTEN
Pointer to an int. The keyboard abort sequence effect (typically
L1-A or Stop-A on the keyboard on SPARC systems, F1-A on x86 sys‐
tems, and BREAK on the serial console device) is enabled if the int
has a value of KIOCABORTENABLE(1). If the value is KIOCABORTDIS‐
ABLE(0) , the keyboard abort sequence effect is disabled. If the
value is KIOCABORTALTERNATE(2), the Alternate Break sequence is in
effect and is defined by the serial console drivers zs(7D ) se(7D)
and asy(7D). Any other value of the parameter for this ioctl() is
treated as enable. The Alternate Break sequence is applicable to
the serial console devices only.
Due to a risk of incorrect sequence interpretation, SLIP and cer‐
tain other binary protocols should not be run over the serial con‐
sole port when Alternate Break sequence is in effect. Although PPP
is a binary protocol, it is able to avoid these sequences using the
ACCM feature in RFC 1662. For Solaris PPP 4.0, you do this by
adding the following line to the /etc/ppp/options file (or other
configuration files used for the connection; see pppd(1M) for
details):
asyncmap 0x00002000
SLIP has no comparable capability, and must not be used if the
Alternate Break sequence is in use.
This ioctl() will be active and retain state even if there is no
physical keyboard in the system. The default effect (enable) causes
the operating system to suspend and enter the kernel debugger (if
present) or the system prom (on most systems with OpenBoot proms).
The default effect is enabled on most systems, but may be different
on server systems with key switches in the 'secure' position. On
these systems, the effect is always disabled when the key switch is
in the 'secure' position. This ioctl()returns EPERM if the caller
is not the superuser.
These ioctl() requests are supported for compatibility with the system
keyboard device /dev/kbd.
KIOCSDIRECT
Has no effect.
KIOCGDIRECT
Always returns 1.
The following ioctl() requests are used to set and get the keyboard
autorepeat delay and rate.
KIOCSRPTDELAY
This argument is a pointer to an int, which is the kb autorepeat
delay, unit in millisecond.
KIOCGRPTDELAY
This argument is a pointer to an int. The current auto repeat delay
setting is stored in the integer pointed by the argument, unit in
millisecond.
KIOCSRPTRATE
This argument is a pointer to an int, which is the kb autorepeat
rate, unit in millisecond.
KIOCGRPTRATE
This argument is a pointer to an int. The current auto repeat rate
setting is stored in the integer pointed by the argument, unit in
millisecond.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Stable │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOkbd(1), loadkeys(1), kadb(1M), pppd(1M), keytables(4), attributes(5),
zs(7D), se(7D), asy(7D), virtualkm(7D), termio(7I), usbkbm(7M)NOTES
Many keyboards released after Sun Type 4 keyboard also report them‐
selves as Sun Type 4 keyboards.
SunOS 5.10 26 Feb 2004 kb(7M)
