---
name: "pckbd"
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/pckbd"
---

# pckbd(4)

PC keyboard driver for wscons

## NAME

**pckbd** – PC keyboard driver for wscons

## SYNOPSIS

**pckbd\* at pckbc?** **pckbd\* at gsckbc?** (hppa) **wskbd\* at pckbd?** **option PCKBD\_LAYOUT=XXX**

## DESCRIPTION

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

The **pckbd** driver supports a number of different key mappings which can be chosen from with the kernel option “PCKBD\_LAYOUT” at compile time or with the utility [wsconsctl(8)](/wsconsctl/8.md) (variable: “keyboard.encoding”) at runtime. Other mappings can be used if the whole keymap is replaced by means of [wsconsctl(8)](/wsconsctl/8.md). The built-in mappings are at this time:

- KB\_BE

  (be) Belgium French.

- KB\_BR

  (br) Brazilian.

- KB\_CF

  (cf) Canadian French.

- KB\_DE

  (de) German with “dead accents”.

- KB\_DK

  (dk) Danish with “dead accents”.

- KB\_ES

  (es) Spanish.

- KB\_FR

  (fr) French.

- KB\_FR \| KB\_DVORAK

  (fr.dvorak) French keyboard with “Dvorak-Bepo” layout.

- KB\_HU

  (hu) Hungarian.

- KB\_IS

  (is) Icelandic with “dead accents”.

- KB\_IT

  (it) Italian.

- KB\_JP

  (jp) Japanese.

- KB\_LA

  (la) Latinamerican.

- KB\_LT

  (lt) Lithuanian in “ISO 8859-13”.

- KB\_LV

  (lv) Latvian

- KB\_NL

  (nl) Dutch with “dead accents”.

- KB\_NO

  (no) Norwegian with “dead accents”.

- KB\_PL

  (pl) Polish in “ISO 8859-2”.

- KB\_PT

  (pt) Portuguese.

- KB\_RU

  (ru) Russian in “KOI8”.

- KB\_SF

  (sf) Swiss French with “dead accents”.

- KB\_SG

  (sg) Swiss German with “dead accents”.

- KB\_SI

  (si) Slovenian.

- KB\_SV

  (sv) Swedish with “dead accents”.

- KB\_TR

  (tr) Turkish in “ISO 8859-9” with “dead accents”.

- KB\_UA

  (ua) Ukrainian in “KOI8”.

- KB\_UK

  (uk) British.

- KB\_US

  (us) English/US keyboard mapping (default).

- KB\_US \| KB\_COLEMAK

  (us.colemak) English/US keyboard with “Colemak” layout.

- KB\_US \| KB\_DECLK

  (us.declk) English/US mapping for DEC LK400-style keyboards with PC keyboard interface (eg LK461).

- KB\_US \| KB\_DVORAK

  (us.dvorak) English/US keyboard with “Dvorak” layout.

The KB\_DE, KB\_DK, KB\_IS, KB\_NO, KB\_SF, KB\_SG, KB\_SV and KB\_TR mappings can be used in the KB\_NODEAD (.nodead) variant. This switches off the “dead accents”.

The KB\_BE, KB\_FR, KB\_FR \| KB\_DVORAK, KB\_JP, KB\_UK, KB\_US, KB\_US \| KB\_DVORAK and KB\_US \| KB\_COLEMAK mappings can be modified to swap the left Control and the Caps Lock keys by the KB\_SWAPCTRLCAPS variant bit or the “.swapctrlcaps” suffix.

The KB\_METAESC (.metaesc) option can be applied to any layout. If set, keys pressed together with the ALT modifier are prefixed by an ESC character. (Standard behaviour is to add 128 to the ASCII value.)

Because PC keyboard hardware doesn't contain a beeper, requests for “keyboard beeps” cannot be handled directly. On alpha and i386, a helper device attached to the pcppi driver allows use of the standard ISA speaker for this purpose.

## EXAMPLES

To set a German keyboard layout without “dead accents” and sending an ESC character before the key symbol if the ALT key is pressed simultaneously, use **wsconsctl** **keyboard.encoding=de.nodead.metaesc**. To set it at kernel build time, add the following to the kernel configuration file:

```
option PCKBD_LAYOUT="(KB_DE|KB_NODEAD|KB_METAESC)"
```

## SEE ALSO

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

## BUGS

The list of built-in mappings doesn't follow any logic. It grew as people submitted what they needed.