Debian – xscreensaver and keyboard layouts

debiankeyboard-layoutxscreensaver

xscreensaver doesn't show which is the current keyboard layout, so sometimes I can't enter my password, because I've switched to Cyrillic without knowing it. I found a discussion about the same problem at http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6877, for example.

Is there a way to make it show the current keyboard layout, or always switch to English?

My system is Debian Wheezy.

Best Answer

Can be done via executing a couple of setxkbmap lines before locking (in xfce, into /usr/bin/xflock4, see: http://www.reddit.com/r/xfce/comments/11yi34/reset_the_keyboard_layout_on_xscreensaver_lock/ similar to:

setxkbmap -layout us 
setxkbmap -layout us,ru

This should disable and then re-enable the international layout, supposedly switching the current layout to the US one. ~~Seems to work fine.~~ Just re-tested, and it doesn't. But the general solution is along those lines, just need more experimentation.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Keyboard layout changed. How and why

The KDE keyboard layouts seemed to not work when kded was not running. Restarting the kdm service got it back up and running, but I'm not sure why it wasn't running in the first place... To kick-start kded without rebooting the whole system, log out of KDE, and log in to a Console Session. Then run:-

sudo service kdm restart

This can be done when logged into KDE, but you'll be automatically and abruptly logged out.

Keyboard layout change indicator

I didn't change my keyboard layout very often, but when i do it, i use (for exemple) :

setxkbmap fr

There's also an option to show the current layout of your keyboard :

setxkbmap -query

result :

rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:     fr
options:    terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

Considering this, you could do something with the notify-send command to send the layout as a notification. Something like this :

notify-send $(setxkbmap -query | grep layout)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Keyboard layout changed. How and why

Keyboard layout change indicator

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