---
name: "hilkbd"
section: "4"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/hilkbd"
---

# hilkbd(4)

HIL keyboard device

## NAME

**hilkbd** – HIL keyboard device

## SYNOPSIS

**hilkbd\* at hil?** **wskbd\* at hilkbd?** **option HILKBD\_LAYOUT=XXX**

## DESCRIPTION

This driver supports HIL keyboards within the [wscons(4)](/wscons/4.md) framework. It doesn't provide direct device driver entry points, but makes its functions available through the internal [wskbd(4)](/wskbd/4.md) interface.

The **hilkbd** driver supports a number of different key mappings. By default, the layout corresponding to the keyboard model as probed by the **hilkbd** driver will be used. A different layout can be chosen either with the kernel option “HILKBD\_LAYOUT” at compile time, or with the [wsconsctl(8)](/wsconsctl/8.md) utility (variable: “keyboard.encoding”) at runtime.

The supported key mappings are at this time:

- KB\_DE

  (de) German with “dead accents”.

- KB\_FR

  (fr) French with “dead accents”.

- KB\_SV

  (sv) Swedish.

- KB\_UK

  (uk) British.

- KB\_US

  (us) English/US keyboard mapping.

The KB\_DE mapping can be used in the KB\_NODEAD (.nodead) variant. This switches off the “dead accents”.

## EXAMPLES

To set a Swedish keyboard mapping, use **wsconsctl** **keyboard.encoding=sv**. To set it at kernel build time, regardless of what keyboard is plugged, add the following to the kernel configuration file:

```
option HILKBD_LAYOUT="KB_SV"
```

## SEE ALSO

[hil(4)](/hil/4.md), [intro(4)](/intro/4.md), [wskbd(4)](/wskbd/4.md), [wsconsctl(8)](/wsconsctl/8.md)

## BUGS

The list of built-in mappings is incomplete and has grown as people submitted information about their particular layout.

The Swedish and British layout have been reconstructed from tables in the old HIL code present in the hp300 port, and have not been tested.