Im using a debian image that defaulted to a GB keymapping which made the pipe (|) key inaccessible- apple US keyboard layout- and remapped the tilde (~) to the pipe key. It felt odd not being able to pipe output.

To reconfigure keyboard mappings:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Instead of issuing a reboot you can

$ invoke-rc.d keyboard-setup start

sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard

Change the line from: XKBLAYOUT="gb"

to: XKBLAYOUT="us"