Ubuntu – How better to adjust more than 2 keyboard layouts

keyboard-layout

From time to time I have to use characters not present in my two layouts: Latin and Cyrillic and instead of digging in Character Map I thought to add 2 additional keyboard layouts.

My issue with this approach is that most of the time I use just two layouts, and while changing to different layout (Alt+Shift) I now have to press couple of times to switch to previous layout. It's not just number of pressings, but I have to press two keys at once and track keyboard indicator which is distracting.

I tried some options presented in keyboard settings, but I think there is no option that I would like – change just between first two layouts on Alt+Shift, and if I want to use additional layout I can choose it from keyboard indicator drop-down menu.

Any ideas how this might be possible?

Best Answer

my approach towards this problem would be assigning a combination of keys (via keyboard shortcuts) for either using loadkeys/setxkbmap. Although, you might want to revert back to last used layout after using 'the special one', thus you might need to write a bash script for that.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Keyboard Layouts missing in Keyboard Layout –Precise upgrade

The Keyboard Layout window inexplicably won't allow you to choose more than 4 layouts. However, you can fire up gconf-editor and navigate to /desktop/gnome/peripherals/kbd/layouts and manually add as many layouts as you like.

I don't understand the arbitrary limit in the GUI, though.

Ubuntu – Keyboard Layouts Plugin forgets settings, unable find workaround

Well, the right answer is: There is a typo. It's not Q U ERTY, but Q W ERTY! I promise next time I'll ask at the morning, being fresh.

However, until I realized it's typo, I searched and experimented even more and I came up with a different, less hackish solution:

I found out there is a /etc/default/keyboard file with keyboard settings. If I edit it and then dare to touch Keyboard Layouts Plugin, my changes are preserved even after multiple restarts. No need for any hacks with setxkbmap.

I edited the file in a following way:

# Check /usr/share/doc/keyboard-configuration/README.Debian for
# documentation on what to do after having modified this file.

# The following variables describe your keyboard and can have the same
# values as the XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbVariant and XkbOptions options
# in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="cz,us"
XKBVARIANT="qwerty"
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle"

# If you don't want to use the XKB layout on the console, you can
# specify an alternative keymap.  Make sure it will be accessible
# before /usr is mounted.
# KMAP=/etc/console-setup/defkeymap.kmap.gz

This works. Hope it helps someone!

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Keyboard Layouts missing in Keyboard Layout –Precise upgrade

Ubuntu – Keyboard Layouts Plugin forgets settings, unable find workaround

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