#1 2019-01-29 13:50:15

christopherisnow

Member

Registered: 2018-05-19

Posts: 57

Keyboard layout [SOLVED]

About a month ago I cloned my entire hard drive from a Thinkpad x220 with an Italian keyboard to a Toshiba Portege Z-30A with a US English keyboard. Everything has gone smoothly since then except the keyboard layout.

I cannot get /etc/default/keyboard to load properly. It looks like this:

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,de,es"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle"

BACKSPACE="guess"

For a while I would just type in

udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change

after every login and it worked. But after trying everything I could think of to sort it out properly I can´t even manage that. I can only toggle between de and es. The us layout doesn´t call.

I know keyboard layout has been an issue with stretch. Any BL users crack this nut?

Perhaps I´ve caused more confusion in the process of repair and just need to start from scratch?

Last edited by christopherisnow (2020-04-29 17:16:37)

christopherisnow

Member

Registered: 2018-05-19

Posts: 57

Re: Keyboard layout [SOLVED]

Thanks, this does seem to work well. I'll take a reliable workaround even it means minor "bloat"...

christopherisnow

Member

Registered: 2018-05-19

Posts: 57

Re: Keyboard layout [SOLVED]

I found an unpredictable solution with ibus in Hydrogen, but on my fresh Lithium install, ibus wreaked havoc and seemingly canceled my BL keybindings.

I tried foregoing any dedicated apps and editing etc/default/keyboard to read this:

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,de,es"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle"

BACKSPACE="guess"

<Alt>+<Shift>+<Space> changed nothing after rebooting.

Then I added this line to autostart:

setxkbmap -layout "us,de,es" -option "grp:alt_shift_space_toggle" &

... which was also a bust.

I'm at a loss for how to solve this once and for all. Is there some Lithium-specific change or trick I'm not aware of?

christopherisnow

Member

Registered: 2018-05-19

Posts: 57

Re: Keyboard layout [SOLVED]

Update: I found a solution by paring down my /etc/default/keyboard to

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"

... then installing ibus and setting it up with a keybinding that wouldn't interfere with the BL keybindings: <Alt>+<Shift>+<Space>.

All works fine now.

Last edited by christopherisnow (2020-04-29 17:15:53)

ohnonot

...again

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 5,592

Re: Keyboard layout [SOLVED]

^ thanks a lot for sharing your various solutions!

christopherisnow

Member

Registered: 2018-05-19

Posts: 57

Re: Keyboard layout [SOLVED]

sure thing!