Edit (or Add custom) keyboard layouts, how?

[adXok]

Here is what I want to do:

1. I want to use English and Bulgarian languages (mostly): call it Latin and Cyrillic respectively.

2. I want to have two (or more) keyboard layouts per language (say: International, Dvorak layouts for the English and Phonetic and Standard layouts for the Bulgarian language)

3. Means total of 4 layouts (or more)

How to Edit an existing layout?

• · I found and edited the Bulgarian Phonetic layout (/xbd/...), saved it overwrite, but the keyboard setup still loads the original file (in previous versions of puppy, before Lucid, it was easy and worked fine)
  · I tried to save it as another layout name in the same place (/xbd/...), but the keyboard setup does not see it, so what else should be edited in order to do it right?

How to group various existing and loaded layouts by Language and to switch between their appropriate layouts (different keyboard switches for the Languages groups and another switch or modifier key for the layouts)?

• · I want it to be like in Windows or by clicking on a flag switch to choose a respective layout
  · I think the keyboard (the mouse, the tablets and touchscreen) options should be cleared and made absolutely perfect and comprehensive, because those are the devices (especially the keyboard) that allow us to communicate with the computer and to write our thoughts

So what can be done in Puppy in order to achieve that simple but vital task: edit and add keyboard layouts (backup the original of course)?

Thanks in advance! I hope you understood my concerns.

[liatodua]

I usually work with two different layouts. I do this: Select from menu: Setup > Mouse/keyboard wzard > Advanced Xorg keyboard configuration. Then some info screen opens. Click OK. And you have than XKB configuration manager screen. Select "Layouts" to add a new layout. Then "Layout variants" to select dvorak or other variant. When finished with this, go to Options tab and select Group shift/lock behavior. There you can select shortcut for switching between the groups (group in this case means keyboard layout).

No idea how to have indicator on desktop of the active layout. Please write here if you find out.

[adXok]

^ Yes, I am pretty aware of that procedure you posted on. It is not about loading an existing layout or whatever, it is about editing (make custom) keyboard layout and then add it to the list via Kbd Setup Wizard.

It just doesn't work the way it used to do in the old Puppies.

If you edit a layout in text editor and save it it doesn't reflect anything later. There is a problem! There must be new place where some tweaks are stored in order to keep the default built layouts and searches only them.

Some kind of protection or whatever, very strange.

That is the way I check whether a Linux distro is good or not - the way you can configure (customize in fact) your keyboard, mouse, pads, screens.
I most (if not all of them) distors the problem is with keyboards and screens (color profiles). Two fundamental communication processes between man and machine.

[adXok]

*cough*... anyone?

[pemasu]

I think that forum member Dougal could have your asked knowledge.

[adXok]

Thanks, pemasu!
I wrote him/her a PM.

[tasmod]

I wrote a tray icon keyboard flag if you need it. See 'additional software/utilities' section of forum.

[Dougal]

How to Edit an existing layout?

Why are you editing the layouts if you want to use variants?

xorg.conf should be the place to define everything, using the XkbVariant option.
I'm not sure how different variants for the same layout work, but you could try putting the following in xorg.conf (in the Keyboard0 section):

Code: Select all

	Option      "XkbLayout" "us,bg,us,bg" #xkeymap0
	Option      "XkbVariant" "dvorak,phonetic,intl,"

If this doesn't work, you might want to try google to see how (if) it can be done. Otherwise, you can always use a script to change between them manually, using the setxkbmap utility, for example:

Code: Select all

setxkbmap -rules xorg -layout us -variant intl