Ubuntu – How to change keyboard layout

bluetoothkeyboardlayout

I'm on ubuntu 12.04.

Recently I bought a cheap apple style bluetooth keyboard. It pairs OK. I paired it with the current 102 key still attached.

Anyway I noticed that the character mapping is incorrect. Most keys do not type anything – some keys on the right (k, l, ;') etc give numbers, but that's about it.

So I rebooted, with 102 kbd unattached, and the bluetooth keyboard on, ready to connect.

After boot at the login screen, the bluetooth keyboard had paired. I typed my password, and it logged in fine!! However after the user login was complete it reverted to the broken behaviour. A glance at the layout chart shows ubuntu thinks I still have the 102 layout, even though it remained disconnected.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Dave

Best Answer

Keyboard layouts are not automatically changed when you start using a new keyboard, there is a chance that the key mappings are different, specially if we are talking about a Apple keyboard.

To change the mappings of the keyboard used in your system you need to:

Open the system settings
Select Keyboard
Select Layout Settings
Right bellow the list of keyboard mappings active there is a little + button, press it and you will be able to add and select a new keyboard mapping

When selecting a new keyboard mapping from the list you will be able to press the Preview button to have a look at the look and key distribution of the keyboard that will be a in use, try to match as close as you can to yours.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the keyboard layout while using xmonad

Here is one way to connect XMonad and multiple keyboard layouts.

Step 1. Create a script that will switch between your layouts. For the sake of example, let's say we will support English (US), Italian and French.

/home/you/bin/layout_switch.sh:

#!/bin/zsh
# LICENSE: PUBLIC DOMAIN
# switch between my layouts

# If an explicit layout is provided as an argument, use it. Otherwise, select the next layout from
# the set [us, it, fr].
if [[ -n "$1" ]]; then
    setxkbmap $1
else
    layout=$(setxkbmap -query | awk 'END{print $2}')
    case $layout in
        us)
                setxkbmap it
            ;;
        it)
                setxkbmap fr
            ;;
        *)
                setxkbmap us
            ;;
    esac
fi

Test this script - run it and see if the keyboard layout cycles between the layouts. If it does, proceed to the next step.

Step 2. Customize XMonad settings to support custom key binding that will switch the layout.

In your home directory, create a directory named ".xmonad" (if it does not exist).

/home/you/.xmonad/xmonad.hs:

import XMonad
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Util.Run(spawnPipe)
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig(additionalKeys)
import System.IO

main = do
  xmonad $ defaultConfig
     {
        terminal = "gnome-terminal"
     } `additionalKeys`
     [ (( mod1Mask             , xK_Escape), spawn "/home/you/bin/layout_switch.sh")
     ]

Now, restart XMonad by pressing Mod+q. Your layout switcher should be fully functional.

Reference: http://zuttobenkyou.wordpress.com/tag/setxkbmap/

Ubuntu – Change keyboard layout

Click the Settings button in the upper-right corner of the screen
Select "System Settings".
Click "Text Entry". It may also be labeled "Language & Text" or "Keyboard Layout"
Click the "+" button beneath the list of installed keyboard layouts.
Choose the layout that you want to add to Ubuntu.
Click [Add] to add it to your list of layouts.
Note the keyboard shortcuts. The "Switch to next source" and "Switch to previous source" shortcuts allow you to quickly cycle through your enabled layouts. You can select each one and set a new shortcut if you'd like.
Change your layout. After enabling the keyboard shortcuts, you have two ways to change the keyboard layout: Click the Language button in the Ubuntu menu bar and select the layout you want from the list. OR Press the shortcut you assigned to cycle through layouts.

Source: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Keyboard-Layout-in-Ubuntu

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the keyboard layout while using xmonad

Ubuntu – Change keyboard layout

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