Arch Linux

mcloaked

Member

From: Yorkshire, UK

Registered: 2012-02-02

Posts: 1,307

sddm wayland - getting correct keyboard layout?

I have been trying to switch sddm to run purely in Wayland rather than the default X.  There is some advice in Arch Wiki on the config file needed to make this change, but there is no discussion on how to make the keyboard layout change from default US to another layout such as GB. If that is possible then with sddm running pure Wayland, and starting a plasma Wayland session makes the entire machine free of xorg in principle.

I have found that there is a file:

$ cat /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup 
#!/bin/sh
# Xsetup - run as root before the login dialog appears

setxkbmap gb

But it is not clear where that file should be copied to in order to make sddm change to a GB keyboard layout, that is needed for password entry for login on the sddm greeter. Some of the characters of course are on different keys on a UK keyboard compared to a US one.

Does someone who had switched sddm from running in the default X to Wayland know if this should be placed in /etc/sddm/scripts/  or somewhere else?  /etc/sddm/ does not seem to exist as a default directory. I should add that by default it works fine and uses the gb keyboard layout without issue - but when switching to Wayland mode it uses the US layout when I have tested the change according to the Arch Wiki.

Thanks.

Last edited by mcloaked (2025-05-20 16:49:58)

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Mike C

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,759

Re: sddm wayland - getting correct keyboard layout?

There's no "Wayland" which window manager are you trying? assuming kwin_wayland there's technically a "sync plasma settings with sddm" button in the KCM which should™ pick up stuff like the keyboard layout as well or from checking configs copy your ~/.config/kxbrc file like described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#M … figuration

FWIW a "Plasma Login" SDDM replacement is in the works which will likely integrate stuff like this more correctly and scheduled for Plasma 6.5: https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Plasma_6#Plasma_6.5 https://blog.davidedmundson.co.uk/blog/ … n-manager/

Last edited by V1del (2025-05-20 23:46:31)

mcloaked

Member

From: Yorkshire, UK

Registered: 2012-02-02

Posts: 1,307

Re: sddm wayland - getting correct keyboard layout?

Thank you for that heads up about the plasma login SDDM replacement in 6.5 when it is ready. Hopefully that new login greeter will run in Wayland rather than X rather like gdm runs in Wayland to allow a login to a pure Wayland Gnome session. Yes I was basically following section 2.12.1 in the wiki entry to set DisplayServer=wayland so that sddm itself runs in Wayland. But I just could not get away from the keyboard using a US layout when my keyboard is a UK layout when I had switched it to use Wayland as the display server. So I could force a password entry to login to a plasma session by knowing where the special keys are which then has, for example, # to get a @ character. In the X config section for sddm I can see there is a reference to the Xsetup file I gave the path for to get the keyboard layout, but the config for the Wayland section didn't include a link to that file, so I wasn't sure if under Wayland sddm itself does or doesn't have the ability to change keyboard layout for the login password entry. Perhaps this is something most Arch users don't do because it seems tricky to get it to work? I have until now only used the defaults in SDDM which means it is running in X even though I then login to a Plasma Wayland session from the sddm greeter.

Edit:  Being super interested in the possible sddm replacement I found this:  https://blog.davidedmundson.co.uk/blog/ … n-manager/

and a plasma-devel thread at https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-d … 23667.html

and the draft release schedule expects Plasma 6.5 release in the autumn of this year: https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-d … 23709.html

Last edited by mcloaked (2025-05-21 14:33:40)

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Mike C