GNOME KeyBoard Applet


Table of Contents
GNOME KeyBoard Applet

GNOME KeyBoard Applet

GNOME KeyBoard Applet, shown with its default configuration in Figure 1, allows you to easily and quickly change the keyboard map to those used in various different countries. To add this applet to a Panel, right-click on the Panel and choose Panel->Add to panel->Applet->Utility->GKB International KeyBoard.

Figure 1. GNOME KeyBoard Applet

Usage

Once configured, the GNOME Keyboard applet allows you to switch the keyboard mapping between any number of countries. Just left-click on the applet to switch the keyboard mapping.

Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the following items:

  • Properties… — opens the Properties dialog.

  • Help — displays this document.

  • About… — shows basic information about GNOME KeyBoard Applet, inluding the applet's version and the author's name.

Customization

You can customize GNOME KeyBoard applet by right-clicking on it and choosing Properties…. This will open the Properties dialog (shown in Figure 2), which allows you to add, configure, and remove keymaps.

Figure 2. Properties dialog

GNOME KeyBoard typically comes up with two keyboard maps. Each keyboard map has its own tab, with a label indicating the language or country the map is for. In Figure 2, these are US (for a US keyboard) and HU (for Hungarian). You can delete any keyboard map by selecting the tab and pressing the Delete this keymap button. To add another keyboard map, press the New keymap button and a new tab will appear for you to customize.

Each keymap tab has the following properties:

  • Keymap name — This is the name of the keymap, which will be displayed in the tab at the top.

  • Icon path — This is the path to the icon which will be displayed for the keyboard map. For most countries, just click on the image of a flag to the right to bring up a set of images you can use. If you select one of these standard map images, you will not need to type the path by hand.

  • Full command — This is the command which GNOME KeyBoard will use to change the keymap. The default is to use the setxkbmap LC command, where LC should be replaced by the 2-letter language code. To set the keymap to a US keyboard, for example, you would use setxkbmap us.

    If this doesn't work, you may also try setting the keyboard using command gkb_xmmap LC (for example, gkb_xmmap fr to use a French keyboard). Finally, if you have your own keyboard layout (xmodmap) file, set the command to xmodmap xmodmap-filename (for example, xmodmap ~/xrus/yawerty.koi8.xmm to use keyboard layout for Cyrillic letters in koi8 encoding). Please see the section called Technical information for more information.

After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Close button.

Technical information

Normally you do not need these details - but if something is not working, or you are just curious, read on.

GNOME Keyboard switches the keyboard map by issuing a command to X Window System. X Window System has two mechanisms for setting keyboard mapping: older one called "xmodmap" and a newer one, based on the so-called "Xkb extension". If you have Xkb enabled, you should use it and switch keyboard layouts by issuing a command setxkbmap LC. It comes with a number of various keyboard layout files, usually in directory /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols.

If you do not have Xkb extension enabled, or if it just does not cover the language you need, you should use the older xmodmap mechanism. In this case, you need to have a file which describes keyboard layout in a special format (see manual page for xmodmap for details), and the command should be xmodmap filename . GNOME Keyboard includes a number of keyboard layout files, which are installed in the directory /usr/share/xmodmap; these files have names like xmodmap.de. To use one of these files, you can use the command gkb_xmmap LC which is equivalent to xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.LC: for example, gkb_xmmap hu is the same as xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.hu.

Authors

GNOME KeyBoard was written by Szabolcs Ban (). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line). You can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Szabolcs (Shooby) Ban () and Dan Mueth (). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to . You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

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