XFree86: Changing the keyboard layout in the X Windows environment
Support knowledgebase (js_xmodmap)
Applies to
SuSE Linux: Versions since 6.0
XFree86: Versions since 3.3
Request:
You'd like top switch between different keyboard mappings without having to reconfigure and restart the XFree86 system every time.
Procedure:
First, you'll need the keymap information for the specific keyboards you wish to use. These can be generated with the tool xmodmap
.
After you've created the necessary keymaps proceed as follows:
- Start your X Window system and open a terminal window (e.g.
xterm
or the like)
- Save the actual keyboard configuration (in this case English) in your home directory with the following commands:
xmodmap -pke > Xmodmap.en
- After this reconfigure the X Window sxystem (using, for example,
SaX
or xf86config
) for the second keymap you'd like to use (in this example French).
- Restart X Windows again, open a terminal window and save the active (new) keymap:
xmodmap -pke > Xmodmap.fr
- Repeat these steps to save as many extra configurations as desired.
- After all necessary keymaps have been created reconfigure the X Window system for the defualt keymap you wish to use, that is, the one that XFree86 starts with.
To change the keymap w/o restarting X simply call xmodmap
in a terminal window as follows:
xmodmap ~/Xmodmap.fr
In this case we've changed to the French keymap we saved earlier.
Keywords: XFREE86, KEYBOARD, XMODMAP
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- Version: 16. Nov 1999
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