7.4. Region specific settings

7.4.1. Keyboard setup

Setting the keyboard layout is done using the loadkeys command for text consoles. Use your local X configuration tool or edit the Keyboard section in XF86Config manually to configure the layout for graphical mode. The XkbdLayout is the one you want to set:

    XkbLayout       "us"

This is the default. Change it to your local settings by replacing the quoted value with any of the names listed in the subdirectories of your keymaps directory. If you can't find the keymaps, try displaying their location on your system issuing the command

locate keymaps

It is possible to combine layout settings, like in this example:

Xkblayout      "us,ru"

Make a backup of the /etc/X11/XF86Config file before editing it! You will need to use the root account to do this.

Log out and reconnect in order to reload X settings.

The Gnome Keyboard Applet enables real-time switching between layouts; no special pemissions are needed for using this program. KDE has a similar tool for switching between keyboard layouts.