Layout-switching in the Console

The command 'loadkeys' can be used to set a new layout. The following outline explains how to implement such a mechanism in dCore. Due to the size of the needed packages, some optimisation is desirable (cf. note below).

The man-page of 'loadkeys' explains a possible side-effect of changing the keyboard-layout in the console. “Note that because the changes affect all the virtual consoles, they also outlive your session. This means that even at the login prompt the key bindings may not be what the user expects.”

• Import and load the kbd package, providing 'loadkeys'. This extension is to be made persistent by adding it to 'sceboot.lst'.
• Import and load the console-date package. This extension is only used in an ephemeral way and can be removed afterwards.

The package kbd has a almost one hundred dependencies going back to, e.g. passwd and mount. Thus it is desirable to include it into a base extension rather than used it as an isolated extension as here presented. That may be done at a later time without need for repeating the whole procedure.

The necessary key-map files are stored away and made persistent.

• Create a directory to store the key-map files in, e.g. '/opt/system/keymaps/', and make it the working directory.
• In a console (virtual TTY, accessed by Ctrl+Alt+F#), 'sudo loadkeys us' should output “/usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/us.kmap.gz”. Use 'dumpkeys > us.keymap' to produce an appropriate key-map file.
• Determine your keyboard layout by 'sudo loadkeys <LAYOUT>', substituting some key-map code (possibly some file name in '/usr/share/keymaps/', likely under 'i386/qwerty/'). Use 'dumpkeys > <LAYOUT>.keymap' to produce an appropriate key-map file.

Hint: if you should have loaded a non-functional keyboard layout, use the arrow-up key to get back to the line loading the US-layout.

• The naming scheme remains a bit hazy. The Swiss-German layout, for instance, may well be loaded by 'loadkeys ch' but the command does not produce any output. Indeed, there is no file 'ch*' at all but instead one for 'sg_latin1'. YMMV. In the end, the file names do not matter as a new key-map file for local use is generated anyways.

Loading any such key-map with 'loadkeys' should switch keyboard layout, e.g. 'sudo loadkeys /opt/system/keymaps/us.kmap'.

• Add the name of the directory, e.g. “opt/system/keymaps” to '.filetool.lst' and issue 'backup'.

In order to specify a standard layout for the console, add the following to '~/.profile'.

~/.profile:
sudo loadkeys <KMAP>

The US-keyboard layout is used as default if nothing else is specified.

In order to quickly switch between layout, add the following to '~/.ashrc'.

~/.ashrc:
alias <CODE>='sudo loadkeys <KMAP>'