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The XKB Configuration Guide

Kamil Toman, Ivan U. Pascal

November 2010

Abstract

This document describes how to configure Xorg XKB from a user's
     point of view. It covers the basic configuration syntax and gives
     a few examples.

This version covers Xorg server versions 1.8 and later, used with
     the data files from the xkeyboard-config project.

1.  Overview

The XKB configuration system consists of a number of components. Selecting
and combining the proper parts, you can achieve most of the configurations
you might need. Unless you have a completely atypical keyboard, you really
don't need to touch any of the xkb component files themselves.

Some desktop environments now provide integrated graphical configuration
tools for setting XKB configuration as part of your desktop session.  The
instructions in this document are provided for those without such support,
those who need to configure XKB before the session startup (such as at the
login screen), or those who need to perform more advanced configuration
than those tools provide.

2.  Selecting an XKB configuration

The easiest and most natural way to specify a keyboard mapping is to use
the rules component. As its name suggests, it describes a number of general
rules on how to combine the bits and pieces into a valid and useful keyboard
mapping. All you need to do is to select a suitable rules file and then to
feed it with a few parameters that will adjust the keyboard behaviour to
fulfill your needs.

The parameters are:

o XkbRules - the file of rules to be used for keyboard mapping composition

o XkbModel - the name of the model of your keyboard

o XkbLayout - the layout(s) you intend to use

o XkbVariant - the variant(s) of the layout(s) you intend to use

o XkbOptions - extra xkb configuration options

The rules file used depends on your system.  The rules files commonly used
with Xorg are provided by the xkeyboard-config project. On Linux systems,
the evdev rules are most commonly used, on other systems the base rules are
used.  Some additional rules files exist for historical reasons, but are no
longer widely used.  In general, it's best to simply not specify the rules
file, in order to use the default rules selected automatically by the X server.

For each rules file there is a description file named <vendor-rules>.lst,
for instance base.lst which is located in the xkb configuration subdirectory
"rules" (for example /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules).

2.1  Basic Configuration

Let's say you want to configure a PC-style American keyboard with 104 keys
as described in base.lst. It can be done by simply writing several lines
from below to a new configuration file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, such
as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-custom-kbd.conf.

Section "InputClass"
         Identifier "keyboard defaults"
         MatchIsKeyboard "on"

Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
         Option "XkbLayout" "us"
         Option "XKbOptions" ""
     EndSection

The values of the parameters XkbModel and XkbLayout are really not surprising.
The parameter XkbOptions has been explicitly set to empty, meaning no options.
The parameter XkbVariant has been left out, meaning that the default variant
(the first variant in the file, often named 'basic') will be loaded.

Of course, this can also be done at runtime using the utility setxkbmap.
The shell command loading the same keyboard mapping would look like:

setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us -option ""

The configuration snippet and the shell command will be very similar for most
other layouts (internationalized mappings).

If you wanted to enable the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace sequence to terminate the
X server by default, you could create a configuration snippet
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-zap.conf containing:

Section "InputClass"
         Identifier "keyboard defaults"
         MatchIsKeyboard "on"

Option "XKbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
     EndSection

This would be equivalent to running the shell command:

setxkbmap -option "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"

2.2  Advanced Configuration

Since XFree86 4.3.x, you can use multi-layouts xkb configuration. What does
it mean? Basically it allows you to load up to four different keyboard layouts
at a time. Each such layout will reside in its own group. The groups (unlike
a complete keyboard remapping) can be switched very fast from one to another
with some key combination.

Let's say you want to configure your new Logitech cordless desktop keyboard,
you intend to use three different layouts at the same time - US, Czech and
German (in this order), and that you are used to the Alt+Shift combination
for switching among them.

Then the configuration snippet could look like this:

Section "InputClass"
         Identifier "Logitech Cordless"
         MatchIsKeyboard   "on"

Option "XkbModel" "logicordless"
         Option "XkbLayout" "us,cz,de"
         Option "XKbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
     EndSection

Of course, this can also be done at runtime using the utility setxkbmap.
The shell command loading the same keyboard mapping would look like:

setxkbmap -model logicordless -layout "us,cz,de" \
               -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle"

2.3  Even More Advanced Configuration

Okay, let's say you are more demanding. You do like the example above but you
want to change it a bit. Let's imagine you want the Czech keyboard mapping to
use another variant than basic. The configuration snippet then changes into:

Section "InputClass"
         Identifier "Logitech Cordless"
         MatchIsKeyboard   "on"

Option "XkbModel" "logicordless"
         Option "XkbLayout" "us,cz,de"
         Option "XkbVariant" ",bksl,"
         Option "XKbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
     EndSection

That seems tricky but it is not. The logic for setting variants is the same
as for layouts, which means that the first and the third variant settings are
left out (set to basic), and the second is set to bksl (a special variant with
an enhanced definition of the backslash key).

Analogically, the loading at runtime will change to:

setxkmap -model logicordless -layout "us,cz,de" \
              -variant ",bksl," -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle"

2.4  Basic Global Options

For a list of available options, with a short description of what they do,
see the section starting with "! option" in the rules/*.lst files.

3.  Keymap XKB Configuration

This is the formerly used way to configure xkb. The user included a special
keymap file which specified the direct xkb configuration. This method has
been obsoleted by the previously described rules files which are far more
flexible and allow a simpler and more intuitive syntax. The obsolete method
is preserved merely for compatibility reasons. Avoid using it if possible.

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