Re: [gentoo-user] How do I change an X keyboard layout?

[Alan McKinnon]

On 22/10/2015 12:09, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hello, Marc.
>
> On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 09:21:07PM +0200, Marc Joliet wrote:
>> On Wednesday 21 October 2015 15:51:43 Alan Mackenzie wrote:
>
>>> The two keyboard layouts I use in XFCE are both fine and dandy, but they
>>> are incomplete.  In particular, I want the key combination
>>> <Ctrl><Alt><shift><F1> to take me to tty13 in the same way that
>>> <Ctrl><Alt><F1> takes me to tty1.
>
>>> I've been searching for _hours_ trying to find out how to do this.  I
>>> cannot find the keyboard layouts anywhere under /usr/share, where one
>>> might expect them.  I can't find any relevant programs to manipulate
>>> these data files with, even if I could find them.
>
>>> Would somebody help me please.  Where are the X keyboard layouts stored,
>>> and what program to I need to enhance them?
>
>>> TIA!
>
>> I was curious, so I looked a bit myself, and found this:
>
>> % ag ctrl-alt-f /usr/share/doc
>> /usr/share/doc/kbd-1.15.5-r1/html/kbd.FAQ-7.html
>> 21:<P>By default, console switching is done using Alt-Fn or Ctrl-Alt-Fn.
>> 22:Under <CODE>X</CODE> (or recent versions of <CODE>dosemu</CODE>), only
>> Ctrl-Alt-Fn works.
>
>> /usr/share/doc/kbd-1.15.5-r1/html/kbd.FAQ-8.html
>> 54:Console_n       Alt-Fn and Ctrl-Alt-Fn  (1 &lt;= n &lt;= 12)
>> 82:Ctrl-Alt-Fn     Switch to VT n
>> 115:Ctrl-Alt-Fn     Switch to VT n (from version 0.50; earlier Alt-Fn)
>
>> /usr/share/doc/kbd-1.15.5-r1/html/kbd.FAQ-13.html
>> 28:While it is running one can use Ctrl-Alt-Fn to switch to VTn.
>
>> /usr/share/doc/kbd-1.15.5-r1/html/kbd.FAQ-9.html
>> 41:However, Ctrl-Alt-Fn will work and you can go to another VT.
>
>> /usr/share/doc/libsdl-1.2.15-r9/html/docs.html
>> 631:    The framebuffer console now uses CTRL-ALT-FN to switch virtual
>> terminals, to avoid collisions with application key bindings.
>
>> (Online here: http://kbd-project.org/www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/)
>
> Yes, I've got that file.  It only really deals with the console
> keyboard, though.
>
>> (For those who haven't heard of it: ag is from sys-apps/the_silver_searcher.)
>
>> From a cursory look, I couldn't find anything specific, other than that
>> apparently AltGr+Fn is supposed to give you console n+12 (though apparently
>> not from within X), but it didn't work for me, and I'm not in the mood to find
>> out why.  Also, that FAQ looks... dated.  However, maybe it will help lead you
>> to a solution?
>
> I think I'm going to have to exercise my meagre search engine skills.
>
>> Also, while I'm sure you've got a good reason for doing this, I'm really
>> curious: why not use screen or tmux instead?  Especially if you're dealing
>> with more than twelve terminals.
>
> I've never really considered screen (or tmux).  Screen looks like a way
> of "windowising" a tty, amongst other things, which isn't what I want.
> In fact, reading the Wikipedia article, I'm not even clear whether
> screen runs on a virtual terminal or within X.

Neither. screen runs in a shell, and the output goes to whatever the
shell is using for that. Same as bash, ssh and so on all do - display
device agnostic.


>
> No, what I really want is a way to go from X (XFCE for me) directly to
> any virtual terminal.  At the moment, if I want to go to, say, tty14,
> I've first got to go to a lower numbered tty, and then to tty14.  It's
> one of these little annoyances which is scarcely worth bothering about,
> but it _is_ an annoyance.
>
> I'll continue searching.
>
> Thanks for the post!
>
>> HTH
>> --
>> Marc Joliet
>


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@×××××.com