Ubuntu – Change Default Keyboard Layout on Lubuntu 16.04

consoledisplay-managerkeyboard-layoutUbuntu

I installed Lubuntu with QWERTY, and now want to switch it to DVORAK.

The documented way to do this is to use the Keyboard Layout Handler on the panel.

This works, but only during and within a desktop session.

For login, the system still reverts to QWERTY, both initial and for any window lock.

The TTY sessions also default to QWERTY.

Is there any way to change everything to DVORAK?

Best Answer

If your system has changed to systemd you should be able to control the global setup with the localectl command. Check the current settings with

$ localectl status

List the possible keyboard variants, including dvorak, with

$ localectl list-x11-keymap-variants

Set the new global keyboard and locale with

$ localectl set-x11-keymap ...

where you need to give, in order, the layout, model, and variant (dvorak). Use the layout and model got from the status output. See man localectl.

Normally, the set-x11-keymap option is supposed to change the console tty keymap automatically as well. However, if it doesn't do a good enough job, you can explicitly set the console tty keymap eg with

$ localectl --no-convert set-keymap us-dvorak

(Use --no-convert to not disturb the X11 map). Use localectl list-keymaps to see what dvorak names are possible.

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Custom keyboard layout without root

For some reason it works if you -print and pipe the output to xkbcomp:

setxkbmap \
    -I ~/.config/xkb/ \
    -rules evdev-local \
    -layout "my-us(mdvp)" \
    -print |
    xkbcomp -I ~/.config/xkb/ - "$DISPLAY"

I don’t think there is anything wrong with your layout. I tried setting it up with setxkbmap directly, but even with the -verbose option the output is not helpful:

Warning! Multiple definitions of rules file
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard layout
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes:   evdev+aliases(qwerty)
types:      complete
compat:     complete
symbols:    pc+my-us(mdvp)+inet(evdev)+terminate(ctrl_alt_bksp)
geometry:   pc(pc104)
Error loading new keyboard description

This is with the default verbose level. But even if I set it to 10, which is apparently the max level, it just outputs “locale is C” as well as where it tries to look for the rules file, in addition to the above. It does not output anything more about why it fails to load the keyboard description.

One of the reasons why I prefer to pipe to xkbcomp instead of just using setxkbmap is because the former seems to give better error messages.

Best Answer

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Custom keyboard layout without root

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