LOSURS

Using kbdrate to change the auto-repeat speed on the console

kbdrate is used to change the keyboard repeat rate and delay time. The delay is the amount of time that a key must be depressed before it will start to repeat. This can be very handy if your repeat rate is slow and scrolling through files quickly becomes frustrating.

kbdrate -r15 -d500

In this case, kbdrate will set the initial delay before repeating characters to 500 milliseconds. The allowable range is from 250 to 1000 milliseconds, in 250ms steps (the default is 250). It also sets the repeat rate to 15 characters per second (the default is 10.9). Note the the repeat rate range is from 2.0 to 30.0, but only specific values are allowed; kbdrate is smart enough to pick the closet value to the one you want.

This example, then, increases the initial delay as well as increases the rate of repeat.