Keyboat Layouts for Xorg & TTY

This guide will lead one in following fields:

Figure out possible available layouts,
change layouts either temporarily or permanently,
Alter layouts in Xorg or in TTY.

Requirements: xorg, xorg-setxkmap, root access (doas/sudo/su).

Xorg: Keyboard Layouts and Variants

For Xorg layouts and variants and explanations is located in a text file: /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst.

After the decision of layout, it is recommended to pick a variant for preferred layout. E.g. for German, de, picking German (dead acute) will be de deadacute.

Note: A more tidy version of this list may be found here.

Temporarily change the layout

If one wants to temporarily change the layout setxkbmap may be used. This is handy for scripting and keymapping purposes.

setxkbmap tr alt

Permanently change the layout

Create the configuration file as shown.

doas touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf

Edit this file as root-user and add desired settings to it. An example is given below for demonstration purposes.

Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "system-keyboard"
	MatchIsKeyboard "on"
	Option "XkbLayout" "tr,ru,us"
	Option "XkbVariant" "alt,,dvorak"
	Option "XkbOptions" "alt_space_toggle,caps:super,altwin:menuwin" #"grp:rctrl_toggle"
EndSection

XkbLayout option states the desired layouts. XkbVariant indicates the layouts’ variants. XkbOption is used for additional settings.

TTY: Keyboard Layouts and Variants

For TTY layouts file names in the following directory will be used: /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386 For example, picking a qwerty layout: tralt.map.gz. Then the name is tralt.

Temporarily change the TTY layout

Temporary change might not be possible; however, at least it can be used to ensure permanent change will work successfully. This command requires a TTY to work and to report back correctly. (For example, swapping to 2nd TTY is possible CTRL+ALT+F2 in Xorg and ALT+F2 in TTY.)

loadkeys -v "tralt"

Permanently change the TTY layout

Create the configuration file as below.

doas touch /etc/vconsole.conf

This file should be edited for wanted layout such as below.

KEYMAP=tralt
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16

Note: Pre-installed fonts can be found at /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts.