Arch Linux

TySpicer

Member

Registered: 2025-08-31

Posts: 167

[SOLVED] Keyboard - y and z are flipped

EDIT - Turns out, after editing /etc/vconsole.conf, I just needed to reboot. My keys are fine now.

Just installed Arch (woot!). The keyboard layout is slightly wrong: y and z are flipped, and several of the other characters (-, /, etc.) are in unfamiliar locations.

From the general recommendations page on the wiki, I found how to change the keymap: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Linux_ … figuration

In /etc/vconsole.conf, I changed the line to the following:

KEYMAP=us

I assumed "us" would be the standard US layout, but it didn't change (I forget which keymap I selected before). I made sure I was logged in as the root, and went back into the file to make sure it saved.

Is "us" the wrong keymap? Is there something else I need to do to fix this?

To be clear, this is my keyboard layout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Q … ted_States

Last edited by TySpicer (2025-09-04 13:01:08)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard - y and z are flipped

Where are you seeing this? vconsole.conf only sets it for the TTY, not for X or wayland.

X and Z being flipped sounds like a QWERTZ layout, which could be english or non-english.

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-09-04 02:00:50)

TySpicer

Member

Registered: 2025-08-31

Posts: 167

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard - y and z are flipped

It's in the console, I haven't installed a display server or GUI yet.

(The x button is fine, it's the y and z that are flipped.)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard - y and z are flipped

Can we eliminate a hardware issue?

If you delete /etc/vconsole.conf systemd should select the US keyboard layout by default.

We can also check the active layout with localectl(1).

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,165

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard - y and z are flipped

localctl will print the systemd parsed config, does

loadkeys us

change anything about the situation?Does 

loadkeys -d

If not, run

sudo evtest | tee /tmp/qwertx.txt

, select your keyboard, press the key right of "t" and the key left of "x" and post/upload /tmp/qwertx.txt
To be clear: "y" is in the row right below the numbers? Not above the one w/ the space bar?

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

TySpicer

Member

Registered: 2025-08-31

Posts: 167

Re: [SOLVED] Keyboard - y and z are flipped

Welp, turns out rebooting fixed it. I double-checked all the keys, and everything is normal now. False alarm! I appreciate the responses!