X11 Keyboard Keyboard Layout XKB – How to Change Currently Selected Keyboard Layout from Command Line

keyboardkeyboard-layoutx11xkb

I have my keyboard layouts (two of them) and switching between them configured via the following command:

setxkbmap -layout us,ru -option -option "grp:lctrl_lshift_toggle,ctrl:nocaps"

Now I want to switch to us layout, using some command line command. Is that possible?

Best Answer

You could use xkb-switch (-n switches to next layout):

xkb-switch -n

or xkblayout-state (with set +1 to wrap around, in your case) :

xkblayout-state set +1

or xte from xautomation to simulate Control_L+Shift_L key press/release:

xte 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L'

Related Solutions

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)

How to change keyboard layout in gnome 3 from command line

Since gnome-shell exposes a JS eval interface on DBus which has access to all variables, the feat is possible with the following command:

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /org/gnome/Shell \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Eval \
 "imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager().inputSources[0].activate()"

Which will activate 0th layout, and so forth. It is trivial to assign these commands to, say, underutilized 無変換 and 変換 on your Japanese keyboard.

Credit.

And this is how to switch to last used input method (from comments):

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/gnome/Shell \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Eval "imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager()._mruSources[1].activate()"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Keyboard layout change indicator

How to change keyboard layout in gnome 3 from command line

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