toggling keyboard maps on-the-fly?

b3zdomny

Beginner

Posts: 5

Location: North-Central California

Occupation: fulltime stay-at-home Dad and homemaker

1

Monday, August 4th 2008, 3:53pm

I would like to be able to toggle back and forth between keyboard maps on-the-fly while within a particular application. Specifically, I would like to toggle between Cyrillic and Latin characters within a single IRC session.

As it is, I must toggle the keyboard to the desired map, *then* open desired application, and cannot toggle between maps while within that application. This situation simply won't work in chat with English-speaking Russian friends in IRC as I'm learning Russian language and sometimes can make myself understood in Russian and sometimes can't.

I have gone K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout and set both Russian and US-English keyboard maps. The keyboard-map toggle icon (represented by alternating US and Russian flag images) appears in the lower-right hand corner of the bottom panel.

When I go K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Country/Region & Language, I can effectively install only one language at a time. When I try to install an alternative language, only one alternative is available-- US English.

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong or not doing enough at K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout?

Once again, I would like to be able to toggle back and forth between keyboard maps on-the-fly while within a particular application. I hope I'm making sense here.

If more information is needed, please don't hesitate to ask.

best regards from North-Central California USA,

bezdomny

Dell Dimension 4400
dual-boot with Windows XP Home
Debian Lenny
2.6.25.9 kernel
KDE 3.5
Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
1 GB RAM
cable TV connection
Skype I.D. "b3zdomny"

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neverendingo

Trainee

Posts: 94

2

Monday, August 4th 2008, 6:54pm

RE: toggling keyboard maps on-the-fly?

Quoted from "b3zdomny"

I would like to be able to toggle back and forth between keyboard maps on-the-fly while within a particular application. Specifically, I would like to toggle between Cyrillic and Latin characters within a single IRC session.

As it is, I must toggle the keyboard to the desired map, *then* open desired application, and cannot toggle between maps while within that application. This situation simply won't work in chat with English-speaking Russian friends in IRC as I'm learning Russian language and sometimes can make myself understood in Russian and sometimes can't.

I have gone K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout and set both Russian and US-English keyboard maps. The keyboard-map toggle icon (represented by alternating US and Russian flag images) appears in the lower-right hand corner of the bottom panel.

When I go K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Country/Region & Language, I can effectively install only one language at a time. When I try to install an alternative language, only one alternative is available-- US English.

Have you installed more than one or two languages? If not, you go to your package manager and install the corresponding language packs, on Ubuntu it is called like "kde-i18n-xx", guess it should be similar under debian. And then it should work.

Quoted from "b3zdomny"

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong or not doing enough at K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout?
Once again, I would like to be able to toggle back and forth between keyboard maps on-the-fly while within a particular application. I hope I'm making sense here.

If more information is needed, please don't hesitate to ask.

You can set a keyboard shortcut for that under K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>(Keyboard?) Shortcuts. There is a point like "change to next keyboard map" (don't know the exact english words...). It must be on the bottom of the list. Hope that's right for you.

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b3zdomny

Beginner

Posts: 5

Location: North-Central California

Occupation: fulltime stay-at-home Dad and homemaker

3

Tuesday, August 5th 2008, 1:21am

Thanks, neverendingo.

I found "kde-i18n-xx" in the Debian repositories and installed, but my situation is still the same. Hope I get more responses because I really want this to work. I know Linux is the best OS, but sometimes I need a little help to get it to work. Don't want to be forced to boot into my Windows side in order to get the result I want.

best regards from North-Central California USA,

bezdomny

Dell Dimension 4400
dual-boot with Windows XP Home
Debian Lenny
2.6.25.9 kernel
KDE 3.5
Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
1 GB RAM
cable TV connection
Skype I.D. "b3zdomny"

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b3zdomny

Beginner

Posts: 5

Location: North-Central California

Occupation: fulltime stay-at-home Dad and homemaker

4

Tuesday, August 5th 2008, 10:56pm

solved: toggle between keyboard maps on-the-fly?

	Source code
1	apt-get install kde-i18n-ru

Note the "ru" suffix for the desired language, in this case, Russian. Next:

	Source code
1	apt-get install kkbswitch

Then, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to add the desired alternate keyboard map (in this case, Russian):

Quoted

"XkbLayout" "us,ru"

as an option under Section "InputDevice".

Optionally, edit the same section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf to add a keyboard switch in addition to the mouseover switch at the panel applet:

Quoted

"XkbOptions" "grp:switch,grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"

Thanks to the community at channel #kde on freenode IRC, and the community here at kde-forum.org (specifically neverendingo) for the solution.

best regards from North-Central California USA,

bezdomny

Dell Dimension 4400
dual-boot with Windows XP Home
Debian Lenny
2.6.25.9 kernel
KDE 3.5
Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
1 GB RAM
cable TV connection
Skype I.D. "b3zdomny"

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