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My password contains "special" characters like ü. How can I login at the console (no X running) when the default keyboard layout does not provide these characters?

Or, differently put: how can I insert arbitrary Unicode characters at the login prompt?

My box runs Debian 6.

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This may be a silly question, but how do you enter them at your X greeter (or, at all, ever)? And if you have means to log in using the keyboard through a GUI, why is your keyboard layout for the shell different? – tink Mar 5 at 1:13
@trink This is my pet server project, so I don't know about Debian and X greeters. In Ubuntu, if I can't switch the keyboard layout at the login screen I press ctrl+shift+u+hex code+space. E.g., 00FC as the hex code for ü. Oh, and for the different keyboard layouts: I changed my password via ssh. – beginner Mar 5 at 13:13

2 Answers

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I found a solution for my problem: If the console is in Unicode mode, you can enter Unicode characters with alt+decimal unicode point. E.g., for ü: alt+252. This works for me with Debian 6 and Ubuntu 12.04.

I am not sure where it is defined whether the console should be started in Unicode mode or not. Some keywords might be kbd_mode, unicode_start and unicode_stop.

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Thanks for sharing your own findings! :) – tink Mar 5 at 17:53
does not work for me after key map change to cz keyboard. Alt+decimal code works as I do not press alt.. I write just numbers. Someone should solve that hell.. Could not be automated as on installation time? – Dee yesterday
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Sort answer: Don't do that. As you see, it gives problems with keyboard differences. I also take care with the root password (sometimes needed to boot when no keyboard mapping is in force), so that no "impossible" characters appear.

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+1 for pragmatism ;| – goldilocks Mar 5 at 1:37
I agree that this is a pragmatic choice, but it doesn't solve my current problem :-) But at least I'm a little bit wiser now. – beginner Mar 5 at 13:17

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