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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 misbehaviour 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.
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