Ok, yet another try, this one will do the trick I hope... ;)
Credits are due to reverendj1, who described a way of assigning a Custom key to toggle keyboard layout, using setxkbmap, which featured in the workaround alluded to in Edit 2 of my previous answer...
Here is the slightly more involved way, but will give you more
flexibility for the key combination. First, copy and paste this script
I wrote and name it something like kb_toggle.sh. Make sure to edit
LANG1 and LANG2 to be the keyboard layout codes you need.
#!/bin/bash
LANG1="us"
LANG2="de"
CURRENT_LANG=$(setxkbmap -query | tail -n 1 | cut -f6 -d ' ')
if [ "$CURRENT_LANG" = $LANG1 ]; then
setxkbmap $LANG2
else
setxkbmap $LANG1
fi
make the file by right-clicking on it -> "Properties" -> "Permissions"
tab, then select "Allow executing file as program.
Now, open "System Settings" -> "Keyboard" -> "Shortcuts" tab and
select "Custom Shortcuts". Click the + button on the bottom and name
the shortcut "Keyboard Toggle" or whatever you want, really. Then give
the full path to the script you made earlier in the command box. Hit
Apply. Click where it says "Disabled" then you can set the shortcut to
whatever you want by clicking your key combination!
I think you'd need to change "de" to "ir".
Again, good luck!
Edit
You may even get away with a one-liner, if you prefer:
setxkbmap us,ir -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
Now you can switch by pressing alt+shift
See also http://wiki.lxde.org/en/Change_keyboard_layouts and http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/man/man1/setxkbmap.1.xhtml
Edit 2
Depending on how you decide to achieve your goal, you may want to include lv3:ralt_alt in your command, resulting in
setxkbmap us,ir -option "lv3:ralt_alt,grp:alt_shift_toggle"
See man xkeyboard-config | grep lv3 for details:
lv3:ralt_alt
Right Alt key never chooses 3rd level
xkeyboard-config provides the description files for the X Keyboard Extension (XKB). The configuration options below are
usually applied with setxkbmap(1).
Best Answer
You have to add a line to the .xinitrc file in your home folder, or add a command to your startup scripts. This command will remap your keyboard to use a different key for "s".
The command you have to add will look something like this:
xmodmap -e 'keycode <value>=<action>'. You have to replace "value" with the key you will press to represent "action" letter. For example, in your case, you want to reassign the letter E to the right Alt key (a guide for all the different key codes is here). I don't know how to assign S to the right Alt key but the Left Alt key is no problem. Make a command like this:xmodmap -e 'keycode 64=s'and add it to your startup scripts.