Change Keyboard Language in X11

Posted by: Andrew Smith
Poster contact info: andrew at littlesvr ca
Author: same as 'Posted by'
Software: x11 All

Say you want to use the keyboard both as an english and as a french one. You do not want to log out and select a different language but quickly switch between them.

This is how you do it on any linux machine with x11 or x.org:

Edit your config file, something like /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Find the keyboard section and add to the end of it:
    Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"
    Option "XkbLayout"  "us,ru,ro,fr"
    Option "XKbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"

The two letter country codes you can guess. The above shows us english, russian, romanian and french. I don't know where to find a list.

The second option tells it you want to use the Alt+Shift key combination to switch the input locale. Again, I don't know what else you can put into there. Being a former windows guy alt+shift is good enough for me :)

Each window manager or desktop environment comes with it's own applet that will show you the currently selected language and let you switch it with a mouse click.

Enjoy.

What to do if keyboard layout doesn't switching

Posted by: In4man
Poster contact info: send@me.akake
Author: same as 'Posted by'
Software: KDE , OpenSuse 11.0

If layout doesnt switch for you, you should open you REgional setting in tab "keyboard layouts" and change tick Enable Ke. Layouts to on state, now it will work!!!!

Ernst Tremel

Posted by: Ernst Tremel
Poster contact info: e-tremel@t-online.de
Author: same as 'Posted by'
Software: ubuntu 10.04

Me too am astonished about that there are only 4 different keyboard layouts posible to create.
I 'm working with much more different languages. So I find this shortening to only 4 keyboard layouts is not very good and I plead to its making better.
Regards,
Ernst Tremel