sendkey

Command

sendkey [--num|--caps|--scroll|--insert|--pause|--left-shift|--right-shift|--sysrq|--numkey|--capskey|--scrollkey|--insertkey|--left-alt|--right-alt|--left-ctrl|--right-ctrl ‘on’|‘off’]… [no-led] keystroke

Insert keystrokes into the keyboard buffer when booting. Sometimes an operating system or chainloaded boot loader requires particular keys to be pressed: for example, one might need to press a particular key to enter "safe mode", or when chainloading another boot loader one might send keystrokes to it to navigate its menu.

You may provide up to 16 keystrokes (the length of the BIOS keyboard buffer). Keystroke names may be upper-case or lower-case letters, digits, or taken from the following table:

Name                Key

================================================

escape              Escape

exclam              !

at                  @

numbersign          #

dollar              $

percent             %

caret               ^

ampersand           &

asterisk            *

parenleft           (

parenright          )

minus               -

underscore          _

equal               =

plus                +

backspace           Backspace

tab                 Tab

bracketleft         [

braceleft           {

bracketright        ]

braceright          }

enter               Enter

control             press and release Control

semicolon           ;

colon               :

quote               ’

doublequote         "

backquote           ‘

tilde               ~

shift               press and release left Shift

backslash           \

bar                 |

comma               ,

less                <

period              .

greater             >

slash               /

question            ?

rshift              press and release right Shift

alt                 press and release Alt

space               space bar

capslock            Caps Lock

F1                  F1

F2                  F2

F3                  F3

F4                  F4

F5                  F5

F6                  F6

F7                  F7

F8                  F8

F9                  F9

F10                 F10

F11                 F11

F12                 F12

num1                1 (numeric keypad)

num2                2 (numeric keypad)

num3                3 (numeric keypad)

num4                4 (numeric keypad)

num5                5 (numeric keypad)

num6                6 (numeric keypad)

num7                7 (numeric keypad)

num8                8 (numeric keypad)

num9                9 (numeric keypad)

num0                0 (numeric keypad)

numperiod           . (numeric keypad)

numend              End (numeric keypad)

numdown             Down (numeric keypad)

numpgdown           Page Down (numeric keypad)

numleft             Left (numeric keypad)

numcenter           5 with Num Lock inactive (numeric keypad)

numright            Right (numeric keypad)

numhome             Home (numeric keypad)

numup               Up (numeric keypad)

numpgup             Page Up (numeric keypad)

numinsert           Insert (numeric keypad)

numdelete           Delete (numeric keypad)

numasterisk         * (numeric keypad)

numminus            - (numeric keypad)

numplus             + (numeric keypad)

numslash            / (numeric keypad)

numenter            Enter (numeric keypad)

delete              Delete

insert              Insert

home                Home

end                 End

pgdown              Page Down

pgup                Page Up

down                Down

up                  Up

left                Left

right               Right

As well as keystrokes, the sendkey command takes various options that affect the BIOS keyboard status flags.

These options take an on or off parameter, specifying that the corresponding status flag be set or unset; omitting the option for a given status flag will leave that flag at its initial state at boot. The --num, --caps, --scroll, and --insert options emulate setting the corresponding mode, while the --numkey, --capskey, --scrollkey, and --insertkey options emulate pressing and holding the corresponding key. The other status flag options are self-explanatory.

If the --no-led option is given, the status flag options will have no effect on keyboard LEDs.

If the sendkey command is given multiple times, then only the last invocation has any effect.

Since sendkey manipulates the BIOS keyboard buffer, it may cause hangs, reboots, or other misbehavior on some systems. If the operating system or boot loader that runs after GRUB uses its own keyboard driver rather than the BIOS keyboard functions, then sendkey will have no effect.

This command is only available on PC BIOS systems.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse