Xfce Forum

hammered999

Member

Registered: 2011-03-05

Posts: 16

How do you change keyboard layouts in 4.10?

In 4.10 in Settings->Keyboard you can add/remove keyboard layouts. But there isn't an obvious way:

1. To set which keyboard combination changes between the layouts.
2. There isn't a way to put an indicator in the systray/notification area which shows the current layout and enables quick change of the layout.

It seems this is a half baked feature....

(I know of the existance of the xkb-plugin. The work done in 4.10 seems to move in a way to deprecate the plugin and have the layouts managed by the core of Xfce)

dajare

Member

From: Edinburgh, UK

Registered: 2012-08-29

Posts: 6

Re: How do you change keyboard layouts in 4.10?

Here's what I did:

2. There isn't a way to put an indicator in the systray/notification area which shows the current layout and enables quick change of the layout.

Right-click on the panel to get panel preferences > Items tab > "+" to add, select "Keyboard layouts". (It says "external" on my system, but I don't think I added it myself? I'm on Linux Mint 13 Xfce.)

1. To set which keyboard combination changes between the layouts.

Right-click on that utility, and use its preferences to set your favoured key combo for switching, etc.

I know of the existance of the xkb-plugin.  ...

Apologies if this only tells you what you already knew. I'm enough of a newb in Xfce not to be able to tell -- sorry! All I do know is that this solution works very nicely for me, and does exactly what you're asking for. (Perhaps you've already seen a similar post/thread dealing with Xubuntu on the Ubuntu forums?)

hammered999

Member

Registered: 2011-03-05

Posts: 16

Re: How do you change keyboard layouts in 4.10?

What you are describing is functionality which is implemented by the xkb-plugin. Up until Xfce 4.8 that was the method used to manage keyboard layouts. But in 4.10 it seems they added the possibility to manage the layouts in the "core" Xfce (ie in the Keyboard seetings). But as it seems, it lacks the features I talked about earlier.

Furthermore the xkb-plugin doesn't behave nicely. After each reboot it constantly "forgets" which laytous I have added AND/OR the keyboard combination that changes between the layouts.

dajare

Member

From: Edinburgh, UK

Registered: 2012-08-29

Posts: 6

Re: How do you change keyboard layouts in 4.10?

Furthermore the xkb-plugin doesn't behave nicely. After each reboot it constantly "forgets" which laytous I have added AND/OR the keyboard combination that changes between the layouts.

There's a wee shame -- it's working well and behaving nicely for me. I hope it continues! Would be happy to see this more closely integrated into the Xfce "core", but for the moment I'm a happy camper.