Ubuntu – How to type Greek characters with a breathing and accent

keyboardkeyboard-layout

I get that this is quite a specialised concern, but I've already added 'Greek (polytonic)' to my keyboard layouts, and it works for typing certain accents and characters. I can easily type ά, ὰ, ἀ, ἁ, ᾳ, ᾶ, ᾱ and ᾰ (for any vowel) by using dead keys on [;], ['], [ and ], but this seems to be it.

I need to have some key combination for characters with an accent and a breathing/iota subscript, such as ἄ, ἆ and ᾇ. I've tried a selection of combinations which are used for the Windows polytonic layout, as well as the combinations mentioned in this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oiK5KraVvob6fAEhcVjwI99RlWtnBLiSGgDFs96qrbk/edit, but the only time that pressing two keys beforehand seems to work is Shift+;/' for ἀ/ἁ.

Is there some way that I have to set up AltGr to work in the way the writer of that document uses it? I've set up the 'Compose key' to be AltGr and 'Alternative Characters key' to be Right Ctrl, but neither of those seem to do anything on the Greek keyboard. The Keyboard Layout Chart doesn't suggest there's any way of typing the characters I want.

Sorry if there's a really obvious answer to this, I'm still getting used to Ubuntu, but it's a big problem for me if there isn't a way to type these characters. I'm reluctant to try this: http://frame-poythress.org/keyboard-entry-of-polytonic-greek-and-biblical-hebrew-in-gnulinux-2014/, as the layout of the bare characters isn't what I'm used to. If necessary, would I be able to set up keyboard combinations for these characters?

χάριν ἐχω ὑμῖν in advance!

Best Answer

The Greek X11 Compose file offers multiple predefined options for typing characters as those you mention. To enable it, follow these steps:

Open Language Support and select "XIM" as the input method.
Unless your selected display language is Greek, open the ~/.profile config file for editing and add this line:
```
export XCOMPOSEFILE=/usr/share/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8/Compose
```
Log out and log in again.

Then, to type e.g. ἄ, one option is: AltGr+>+'+α

You can find out other options by studying the /usr/share/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8/Compose file.

Edit:

These are the steps with Right Ctrl as the compose key:

Press Right Ctrl
Type > (by holding down Shift when pressing the key)
Type ' (by holding down AltGr when pressing the key)
Press α

Nothing should happen on the screen until you press the α key, and then the ἄ character should show up.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Map AltGr-[a..z] and Shift-AltGr-[A..Z] to greek letter

This is a long answer. If you want a TL;DR version --- xmodmap is sort-of deprecated; layout switches will reset it; go to the section called "and finally, I did it" at the end for my solution.

I suppose you have your AltGr-something working already. It will depend on your keyboard configuration to have it activated or not. On my PCs, it works with Spanish and US-International but NOT on plain US keyboard.

The method I use is with xmodmap, but it works only partially: if it works or not will depend on your layout and even then it will be reset every time you change layout. See later for the "real" (but complex) solution.

You can use xmodmap by following these steps:

1) In a terminal issue

xmodmap -pke > mykeydefs.lst

(extension and name free --- use what you like)

2) edit the file; you will see a bunch of lines like...

keycode   8 =
keycode   9 = Escape NoSymbol Escape
keycode  10 = 1 exclam 1 exclam bar exclamdown
keycode  11 = 2 quotedbl 2 at at oneeighth
keycode  12 = 3 periodcentered 3 numbersign numbersign sterling

These are your keyboard definitions. Find for example the entry for A:

keycode  38 = a A a A ae AE

This means that pressing this key you have "a", shift+key "A", etc... the interesting ones are the 5th and 6th (1), which are normally associated to ALtGr and Shift+AltGR. Pressing AltGR + A you should have the symbol "æ".

If you have more than 6 entries, try to see which ones are activate by your AltGR combination: for example, if you have

keycode  38 = a A a A ae AE aring Aring

and you have an å when pressing AltGr-A, the entry to modify will be the 7th and 8th...

3) change the line to

keycode  38 = a A a A Greek_alpha Greek_ALPHA

(capitalization is important). You can edit all the lines you want; it is better if you delete all the lines you left untouched. The list of all the symbols is here, but take into account that if they are visible or not depend on the font you are using, too. Save the file.

4) Reload the new mapping

xmodmap mykeydefs.lst

This command must be silent --- if it shows any error, the map is not loaded.

5) test it. Now pressing AltGr + a should give the symbol alpha (well, alpha letter greek in Unicode, really).

6) if it works, you can set the command in the list of your startup commands.

The real solution (hints at it, at least)

If the xmodmap method does not work, you'll need to edit your keyboard layout. I have found some interesting links:

An howto and a thread on creating your own keyboard layout.
A quite complete guide to the XKB system.
A blog entry on making local modifications to your layout.

And finally, I did it:

A little example of a direct modification to the system files (I could not find how to do that in your local ~/.xkb directory).
A nice configuration to have all the greek letters with a single modifier.

Footnotes:

(1) by the way, in all manuals and instructions around it is said the "mode_shift" chars should be the third and the fourth. Which on Ubuntu are not, and I can't really find any documentation with details. If anyone can point it to me, I will be grateful.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Map AltGr-[a..z] and Shift-AltGr-[A..Z] to greek letter

And finally, I did it:

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