UNICODE\_START(1) General Commands Manual UNICODE\_START(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

unicode\_start - put keyboard and console in unicode mode

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**unicode\_start** \[*font* \[*umap*]]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The **unicode\_start** command will put the keyboard and console into Unicode (UTF-8) mode.

For the keyboard this means that one can attach 16-bit U+xxxx values to keyboard keys using [**loadkeys**(1)](/man/os/kbd/loadkeys.1), and have these appear as UTF-8 input to user programs. Also, that one can type hexadecimal Alt-xxxx using the numeric keypad, and again produce UTF-8.

For the console this means that the kernel expects UTF-8 output from user programs, and displays the output accordingly.

The parameter *font* is a font that is loaded. It should have a built-in Unicode map, or, if it hasn't, such a map can be given explicitly as second parameter. When no font was specified, the current font is kept.

# [NOTE](#NOTE)

Unicode mode is a parameter with a value per virtual console. However, usually the font and keymap is common to all consoles.

# [AUTHORS](#AUTHORS)

Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**dumpkeys**(1)](/man/os/kbd/dumpkeys.1), [**kbd\_mode**(1)](/man/os/kbd/kbd_mode.1), [**loadkeys**(1)](/man/os/kbd/loadkeys.1), [**unicode\_stop**(1)](/man/os/kbd/unicode_stop.1), [**utf-8**(7)](/man/os/kbd/utf-8.7), [**setfont**(8)](/man/os/kbd/setfont.8)

3 Feb 2001 kbd

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Document: unicode_start(1) from kbd 2.10.0-r3 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/legionus/kbd