TITLE: Compiling your keymap into the kernel LFS VERSION: All AUTHOR: Matthias S. Benkmann SYNOPSIS: By default the Linux kernel sets a US keymap. That's nice for people with US keyboards but if you don't use one, you need to run loadkeys to set the proper keymap. This is no big deal if you boot normally because you have a boot script to do this, but if you boot with init=/bin/sh, or into single user mode, this boot script is not started and you will have to start loadkeys (by typing "loadkezs" on a qwertz keyboard) manually which, depending on your setup, may require mounting filesystems first. But it need not be like this. You can compile the appropriate keymap into the kernel to get the same native keyboard support, US keyboard users get. HINT: When you have reached the "Making the LFS system bootable" section in the end of the LFS book, right before compiling your Linux kernel, do the following: Tell the kernel about your keymap by running the following commands: cd /usr/src/linux && dumpkeys | loadkeys -m - >defkeymap.c && cp defkeymap.c drivers/char/defkeymap.c This assumes that the currently active keymap is the one you want to use. If you want to use a different keymap instead, issue the following commands: cd /usr/src/linux && loadkeys -m /path/to/keymap >defkeymap.c && cp defkeymap.c drivers/char/defkeymap.c Replace `/path/to/keymap' with the full path to the appropriate keymap file (usually located in a subdirectory of /usr/share/kbd/keymaps). Now you can compile your kernel as usual. If you follow these instructions you don't need the loadkeys boot script and /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file (they will still work, of course).