devc-con, devc-con-hid

Runs on:

QNX Neutrino

Targets:

x86, x86_64

Options:

-C size

Specify the size of the canonical buffer in bytes (default 256).

-E

Start in raw mode.

-e

Start in edited mode (the default).

-h

(devc-con-hid only) Don't connect to the io-hid server; read from the keyboard controller instead.

-I size

Specify the size of the interrupt input buffer in bytes (default 2048).

-i number

(devc-con only) Specify the interrupt vector for a keyboard device (default 1).

-k

Disable the keyboard (don't attach a keyboard interrupt handler).

-L [P][N][C][S]

Set the initial state of the keyboard and its LEDs (default all off):

• C — turn CapsLock on.
• P — preserve the keyboard state. This overrides all the other -L options.
• N — turn NumLock on.
• S — turn ScrollLock on.

-n num_ports

The number of virtual console ports to create. The default is 4; the maximum is 9.

-O size

Specify the size of the interrupt output buffer in bytes (default 2048).

-o opt[,opt...]

Additional options, separated by commas. The options include:

• nodaemon — don't call procmgr_daemon() to make the driver run in the background. Use this option if you need to know when the device terminates.
• priority=prio — set the working priority of the internal pulse.

-r rate[,delay]

Specify the initial keyboard typematic rate (in Hz) and, optionally, the initial keyboard delay (in ms). The default values are 30 Hz and 500 ms.

The keyboard typematic rate is the number of times per second that a depressed key repeats. On a PC/AT-compatible system, this ranges from 2 to 30 characters per second. If the option -r 0 is specified, the keyboard typematic rate isn't set by the driver.

The keyboard delay is defined as the time from when a key is first pressed to when the start of the first repeated key is generated. On a PC/AT-compatible system, the keyboard delay can range from 250 to 1000 milliseconds.

Description:

The devc-con manager provides an interface to the VGA console screen and keyboard.

When devc-con starts, it creates and manages the devices /dev/con1, /dev/con2, and so on, up to the number of ports specified by the -n option.

The devc-con-hid manager is similar to devc-con, but works in conjunction with io-hid and supports PS2, USB, and all other human-interface devices.

If you read from /dev/console, these managers return the characters typed on the keyboard; if you write to /dev/console, the managers write to the screen.

[type=link] /dev/console = /dev/con1

The devc-con and devc-con-hid managers all emulate an 80×25 ANSI terminal.

Keyboard control

You can use the keyboard to switch between virtual consoles.

Each virtual console can run different applications that use the entire screen. The keyboard is attached to the virtual console that's currently visible. You can switch from one virtual console to another—and thus from one application to another—by entering the following keychords:

You can also jump to a specific console by using the Ctrl–Alt–n, where n is a numeric digit that represents the console number of a virtual console. For instance:

Character sets

The devc-con and devc-con-hid managers let you choose the character sets in use from a “palette” of character sets, each of which is independently programmable to contain one of several builtin character sets.

The in-use range of characters is divided into four regions which span character numbers (in hexadecimal) 0x00 through 0xff. Two of these regions are fixed sets of control characters, while the other two are configurable to contain a choice of character sets:

You can set each of the GL and GR in-use character sets to a choice of several character sets from the G0, G1, G2 and G3 character sets.

The screen control codes to set GL and GR are as follows:

The {LS*} codes stand for “Locking Shift”. When character sets are selected by these means, they remain in effect until another {LS*} code is sent.

The {SS*} codes stand for “Single Shift” and affect the next character only. After that character, the character set in effect reverts to its previous setting. There are only two {SS*} codes, {SS2} and {SS3} which maps G2 into GL and G3 into GL, respectively.

The G0 through G3 characters sets may each be set to any of the available builtin fonts. The control code to do this is:

ESC g s

where:

and:

Character set defaults

The in-use character sets are as follows:

The character set codes are as follows:

Character set example:

Set the GL in-service character set (0x20-0x7f) to the PC character set through G1, write some characters, then switch GL back to G0:

{ESC )U}  1e 29 55    (Set G1 to be the PC character set)
{SO}      0e          (Set GL to G1)
.
.                     (Write chars in PC graphics char set)
.
{SI}      0f          (Set GL to G0)

Figure 1. The PC character set 0x00-0x7f.

Figure 2. The PC character set 0x80-0xff.

ANSI screen control codes

C0 control codes

The C0 control codes are as follows:

ESC control sequences

The ESC control sequence codes are as follows:

C1 control characters (220+)

The C1 control character codes are as follows:

CSI control sequences

printf( "%c%c", 0x9b, 0x32 ) ;

The CSI control sequence codes are as follows:

Graphic rendition

The graphic rendition codes are as follows:

Color numbers

The color codes are as follows:

Modes

Modes are as follows:

Mapping from QNX keyboard to ANSI keys

The ANSI key mapping codes are as follows:

International keyboard layouts

The devc-con and devc-con-hid managers support international keyboard layouts. By default, they use the original US-101 layout.

If the file /etc/kbd.tbl is present when you start devc-con or devc-con-hid, it's loaded and used instead. You can reload this file at runtime by pressing Ctrl–Alt–Space. (If you're using VMWare, you may need to press this twice).

We provide the following layout files, in ${QNX_TARGET}/etc/:

kbd.tbl.de

DE-102 (German) layout.

kbd.tbl.us

US-101 layout (the default).

The keyboard-layout file's structure is very simple and rigid. It must contain either exactly 5 × 96 or exactly 6 × 96 hexadecimal entries, separated by whitespace, newlines, or commas:

• If the file contains 5 × 96 entries, the left and right Alt keys are both treated as regular Alt keys.
• If the file has 6 × 96 entries, the right Alt key is treated as an AltGr key, and the last 96 entries must define key codes for each key with AltGr pressed.

Entries must be no longer than 4 hex digits (16 bits) each. Comments start with a number sign (#) and extend to the end of the line.

Each run of 96 entries defines the semantics of up to 96 different keys under certain conditions:

The 96 entries in a run are indexed by keyboard scan codes. You'll need to know those scan codes in order to make up your own keyboard definition. Given below is the scancode/symbol-mapping for a US-101 keyboard:

 0     1     2     3     4     5     6     7    8     9     A     B     C     D     E     F
   ,  Esc,  '1',  '2',  '3',  '4',  '5',  '6'  '7',  '8',  '9',  '0',  '-',  '=',  Rub,  Tab  ; 00
'q',  'w',  'e',  'r',  't',  'y',  'u',  'i'  'o',  'p',  '[',  ']',  Ent,  Ctl,  'a',  's'  ; 10
'd',  'f',  'g',  'h',  'j',  'k',  'l',  ';'  ''',  '',   Shf,  '\',  'z',  'x',  'c',  'v'  ; 20
'b',  'n',  'm',  ',',  '.',  '/',  Rsh,  '*'  Alt,   SP,  Cap,   F1,   F2,   F3,   F4,   F5  ; 30
 F6,   F7,   F8,   F9,  F10,  Num,  Scr,  Hom   Up,  PgU,   K-,  Lft,   K5,  Rig,   K+,  End  ; 40
Dwn,  PgD,  Ins,  Del,     ,     ,     ,  F11  F12,     ,     ,     ,     ,     ,     ,       ; 50

For every scan code, two bytes of data are given by the entries. The high byte defines a number of flags for the key (see below), while the low byte usually carries the actual data to be given to the user when the key is pressed. For Shift, Lock, and special keys, the low byte carries additional, function-dependent information (see below).

The entries' high bits are as follows:

• 00 — Data key
• 01 — Function key
• 02 — Shift key:
  • 0201 — Shift
  • 0202 — Ctrl
  • 0204 — Alt
  • 0208 — Rshift
• 04 — NumLock-dependent
• 08 — Lock key:
  • 0801 — ScrollLock
  • 0802 — NumLock
  • 0804 — CapsLock
• 10 — Dead key
• 20 — CapsLock-dependent
• 40 — Special:
  • 4001 — reboot (Ctrl–Alt–Del)
  • 4002 — debug (Ctrl–Alt–Esc)
  • 4003 — next console (Ctrl–Alt–+ or Ctrl–Alt–Enter)
  • 4004 — previous console (Ctrl–Alt–-)
  • 4005 — console 1 (Ctrl–Alt–1)
  • 4006 — console 2 (Ctrl–Alt–2)

    ...

  • 400C — console 8 (Ctrl–Alt–8)
  • 400D — console 9 (Ctrl–Alt–9)
  • 400E — console 10 (Ctrl–Alt–0)
  • 400F — increase font size (Ctrl–Alt–>)
  • 4010 — decrease font size (Ctrl–Alt–<)
  • 4011 — help (Ctrl–Alt–?)
  • 4012 — break (Ctrl–Break)
  • 4013 — hang up (Ctrl–Alt–End)
  • 4020 — print screen (Ctrl–Alt–PrtScn)
  • 4021 — hot1 (Ctrl–Alt–F1)
  • 4022 — hot2 (Ctrl–Alt–F2)

    ...

  • 402B — reload (Ctrl–Alt–Space)
• 80 — invalid key

Examples:

Typical command line:

devc-con -n4

Files:

/dev/con1, /dev/con2, …

Console port devices.

/etc/kbd.tbl

The keyboard layout; see “International keyboard layouts,” above.

Errors:

If an error occurs, the keyboard doesn't work in text mode.