Arch Linux

Xebat

Member

From: Kurdistan

Registered: 2021-02-22

Posts: 10

How does one add a different keyboard layout?

Hello everyone

I wish to write in Kurdish on my Arch install, I am not sure if "keyboard layout" is the right term, but that's basically what I want to do.

How do I do that? Thanks to seth (a forum member) I know these exist:

/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/tr:// Kurdish Q layout
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/tr:   name[Group1]="Kurdish (Turkey, Latin Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/tr:// Kurdish F layout
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/tr:    name[Group1]="Kurdish (Turkey, F)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/tr:// Kurdish Alt-Q layout
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/tr:    name[Group1]="Kurdish (Turkey, Latin Alt-Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:// Kurdish Layout
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iran, Latin Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iran, F)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iran, Latin Alt-Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:// Kurdish Soranî Bahdînî (Arabic) keyboard layout,
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:// based on the Kurdî Soranî Bahdînî keyboard from KurdITGroup
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:// Kurdish Arabic-Latin Layout for Soranî
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ir:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iran, Arabic-Latin)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/nbsp:// ZWNJ and ZWJ are widely used in Persian, Kurdinsh, Pashto, Uzbek and other
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/sy:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Syria, Latin Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/sy:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Syria, F)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/sy:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Syria, Latin Alt-Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/iq:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iraq, Latin Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/iq:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iraq, F)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/iq:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iraq, Latin Alt-Q)";
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/iq:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Iraq, Arabic-Latin)"

I just don't know how to activate them. I'm after this one:

/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/sy:    name[Group1]= "Kurdish (Syria, Latin Q)";

I have read this article on the Arch Wiki, but I must be doing something wrong.

localectl list-keymaps

lists keymaps, but Kurdish isn't among them. Because of that, I don't know what to replace keymap with here:

loadkeys keymap

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

---

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” James Baldwin

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,628

Re: How does one add a different keyboard layout?

Those are X11 keymaps.  See Xorg/Keyboard_configuration#Using_localectl  As the wiki page mentions you can also use that to set the console keymap.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,070

Re: How does one add a different keyboard layout?

You'll find sth. like

partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "ku" {
…

In the layouts, the "ku" is the variant you want to select w/ setxkbmap or localectl.
Which of them, idk - though most seem to simply inherit tr/ku and relabel it for entirely non-political reasons ;-)

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc