SHARED KEYBOARD LAYOUT In Debian the default keyboard layout is shared between the console and X. It is specified in /etc/default/keyboard. USING DEBCONF FOR EASIER CONFIGURATION While it will be safe to edit directly the configuration files (/etc/default/keyboard and /etc/default/console-setup) perhaps it will be easier to use dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration dpkg-reconfigure console-setup If your keyboard configuration is too complex, Debconf may refuse to reconfigure it. This doesn't mean this configuration is not supported and can not be used on the console. It only means you have to edit the configuration files by hand. Consult the manual pages keyboard(5), console-setup(5) and setupcon(1). DEBIAN PACKAGES keyboard-configuration This package creates and maintains the configuration file /etc/default/keyboard. console-setup This package is responsible for the actual configuration of the console (font and keyboard). It is responsible for the configuration file /etc/default/console-setup. console-setup-mini This is a limited version of console-setup. It doesn't create a file /etc/default/console-setup but it will use such a file if it exists. Notice that if /etc/default/console-setup doesn't exist, then no font will be loaded so some non-ASCII symbols will not display correctly. However, Unicode/non-Unicode mode and the charmap will still be configured according to the current locale. -- Anton Zinoviev , Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:14:16 +0300