D&C GLug - Home Page

[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]

Re: [LUG] Keyboard layout for en_GB (was Sterling sign)

 

Neil Williams wrote:
> Thomas Arrow wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I'm just wondering if anyone knows how to get the pound sign via shift-3
>> in X.
> 
> 1. In gdm|xdm|kdm, ensure you've set en_GB as the language for your
> default X sessions. (~/.xsession | ~/.Xsession are not always noticed.)
> 
> 2. Keyboard layouts then determine which keypresses mean which
> characters. Under Gnome, go to Desktop, Preferences and Keyboard. Make
> sure you've got a British English or similar layout set.
> 
> Report what you get with:
> printenv | grep LANG
> in a xterm | gnome-terminal | konsole under X.
> You should get something like:
> $ printenv | grep LANG
> LANG=en_GB
> LANGUAGE=en_GB:en_US:en_GB:en

I didn't think that LANG had any effect on the keyboard map.

The console uses a keyboard map file.

But I thought keyboard layout for X was determined by the map used by
the X input method (XIM), which for X is an InputDevice section (man 4
keyboard), in the Xorg conf file (man xorg.conf). Which I assumed was
independent of locale (since it is a physical property of the keyboard).

Or is there some clever default assumptions made somewhere? I know the
installer for Debian tries to walk you through a consistent set, but
that is just to make it quicker I thought, since I could presumably have
a UK keyboard but want to write and work in German (if I ever get
motivated to improve my German that is).

Definitely setting a keyboard map in GNOME can sort the problem, but
GNOME use to complain every time it started if its keyboard map was
different to the one X had specified (and probably wisely, since
starting GNOME doesn't change your keyboards physical layout - even if
it can change what the computer believes your keyboard layout to be).

Hehe, just discovered IIMF, that should make my typing of Hebrew and
Chinese a lot easier. Now all I need to do is learn some Hebrew and
Chinese. As if we didn't have enough layers of keyboard to character
mapping already.

-- 
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list
FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html