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

[Marc Joliet <marcec@gmx.de>]

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On Thursday 22 October 2015 10:09:11 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.

Too bad, I was hoping that there might be a way of modifying the relevant X 
key bindings.

>> (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.

(Note: personally, I recommend tmux over screen, unless you fall into one of 
the niches that only screen supports.)

As Alan said, they are normal programs that run in a shell.  You can access 
their sessions from X, a linux console, and/or SSH simultaneously (tmux 
shrinks the view to the lowest common denominator automatically, e.g., to the 
size of a laptop screen).  You can split windows (much like Vim; tmux has Vi 
key bindings, BTW), interactively select windows, scroll back and search 
through a buffer, etc. pp..

I find it much superior to dealing with "physical" terminals (at least 
exclusively).

(Oh, and you can detach from a session and let it run in the background 
without staying logged in, i.e., tmux and screen can daemonize.)

>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.

If that's what you really want, then that's fine, I just wanted to present an 
alternative.

>I'll continue searching.

Best of luck!

>Thanks for the post!
>
>> HTH

HTH
-- 
Marc Joliet
--
"People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we
don't" - Bjarne Stroustrup

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