• Diff for "Keyboard"

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Keyboard configuration

To configure the keyboard, you have to install following packages:

* console-data * keyboard-configuration

The keyboard settings are stored in /etc/default/keyboard file. It's provided by keyboard-configuration package (it's a part of the console-setup source package), and other packages use this information in order to configure the keyboard on the console or in X Window System.

You can change your keyboard settings using:

# dpkg-reconfigure console-data
# dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
# service keyboard-setup restart

As usual, it will prompt you for the model of keyboard (what the keyboard *is*), and then for the keyboard layout (what the keys should *do*). Use this tool to change your keyboard map, e. g. from QWERTY to QWERTZ or to Dvorak, or for non-English layouts.

To apply new settings, restarting the keyboard-setup service should suffice, otherwise you can try to restart kernel input system via udev:

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

or reboot the whole OS.

You can also edit /etc/default/keyboard manually, here's an example:

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,de,fr,ua,ru"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle"

BACKSPACE="guess"

• XKBMODEL is a keyboard model variable (look at a /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst (plain text) or /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.xml (XML) for a full list);

• XKBLAYOUT variable contains a list of used layouts;

• "grp:alt_shift_toggle" sets a layout switching key combination (<Alt>+<Shift>).

See also:

• keyboard(5) man page.

• Keyboard layout (keymap) section in debian-reference ("dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low xserver-xorg" command suggested by the page linked above does not work in Squeeze. You may try to add something like "setxkbmap us,ru -option grp:ctrl_shift_toggle" into ~/.xsessionrc instead).

• Configure additional multimedia keys.

How to set keyboard layout in initramfs

The appropriate section of /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf needs to be changed to have a localized keyboard layout at boot time:

#
# KEYMAP: [ y | n ]
#
# Load a keymap during the initramfs stage.
#

KEYMAP=y

Apply changes:

# update-initramfs -u

How to enable USB keyboard in initramfs

The initramfs-tools must include the usbhid module and its dependencies for USB keyboard support at boot time. Either the configuration file /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/driver-policy must include most modules, or they will have to be specified in another file:

#
# MODULES: [ most | netboot | dep | list ]
#
# most - Add most filesystem and all harddrive drivers.
#
# dep - Try and guess which modules to load.
#
# netboot - Add the base modules, network modules, but skip block devices.
#
# list - Only include modules from the 'additional modules' list
#

MODULES=most

If the configuration above was not set to include most modules, then the necessary modules have to be specified in the file /etc/initramfs-tools/modules:

# USB keyboard at boot
usbcore
uhci_hcd
ehci_hcd
usbhid

Apply changes:

# update-initramfs -u

How to switch a keyboard layout in X11 / graphical desktop environment

Use your favorite desktop keyboard layout switcher applet. You can also switch the layout from the terminal, e. g.:

$ setxkbmap de
$ setxkbmap fr
$ setxkbmap us

Of special interest for keyboard hardware with us layout might be the altgr-intl variant (this provides a simple AltGr mapping for many umlauts and special symbols):

$ setxkbmap -rules evdev -model evdev -layout us -variant altgr-intl

or

$ setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout us -variant altgr-intl

To configure a simple key for toggling between multiple configured keyboard layouts, see Option XkbOptions in Section InputClass somewhere within the xorg config file collection (see [SOLVED] Setxkbmap .xinitrc).