Creating a custom keyboard layout

[Freiberg]

I posted exactly what frederickjh posted earlier. Reposting, that is:

<layout>
      <configItem>
        <name>DVX</name>
        <shortDescription>DVX</shortDescription>
       <description>Dvorak International Extended (dead keys)</description>
        <languageList><iso639Id>eng</iso639Id></languageList>
     </configItem>
      <variantList/>
    </layout>

[kutya61]

Ok, you should modify it a bit. From your first post I think, that the file which contains your layout is in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/ directory. You should copy your layout file into /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ (one directory upper). After this copy, paste the name of that file here:

<layout>
      <configItem>
        <name>name of the file</name>
        <shortDescription>DVX</shortDescription>
       <description>Dvorak International Extended (dead keys)</description>
        <languageList><iso639Id>eng</iso639Id></languageList>
     </configItem>
      <variantList/>
    </layout>

For example, if your layout file is /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/mydvorak then in your evdev.xml the above line should be this:

        <name>mydvorak</name>

[Freiberg]

It worked! It worked!

I realized the basic problem: I had not actually saved DVX in the symbols directory. I took the text from DVX and copied it. Then, I opened a terminal and used a sudo gedit. From there, I pasted the text, saved it as DVX in the symbols directory, and bang! It worked like a charm.

Thank you all very much for your help: I could not have done this without you. I am marking this thread as solved.

[kutya61]

You are welcome.

[frederickjh]

Freiberg: Yes, you should edit it with

sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml

because this file is out of your home directory.

You can also hit Alt-F2 to bring up the Run Application dialog. Then type in gksu followed by the program you want to run as the super user. Many times in a project like this I will run the file manager with the run application dialog by typing in gksu nautilus. Then if I then need to edit a file I open it from the file manager and it opens gedit with super user privileges so I can edit it.

Warning: If you don't know what you are doing you can mess up your computer big time running programs as the super user! Always make a backup copy of files before you edit them so you always have something to go back to. If you mess your computer up running as super user don't blame me you have been warned.

[frederickjh]

I figured out that if the layout file is named in lowercase characters only and the layout is added to the evdev.lst then the indicators and group names show up.

So, add the following line to the end of the section ! layout in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst file.

dvx Dvorak International Extended (dead keys)

This is just before the section ! variant.

If you followed my previous instructions in my previous post then you will need to also change the

<name>DVX</name> to <name>dvx</name> in the code to be inserted in the evdev.xml file and rename the DVX file in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols directory to dvx. Change both the filename and the reference to it to all lower case.

================================================== ==========
If you are starting fresh follow the instructions below which I have edited to be complete and use the newly attached file with the complete instructions.

In reality you can simplify things as you only have one keyboard layout so you do not need the variant section but can replace the whole section with <variant/> tag

I am using the same Dvorak International Extended keyboard with deadkeys from http://arjenvankol.com/dvorak.php .

Here is how I got it to work.

Save the attached text file as a file called dvx in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ directory (I had to add the ".txt" to the end to be able to upload it). You will want to save it here instead of link to it if you want other user on the system to be able to use it.

Then add the following lines to /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml just before the </layoutList> tag.

<layout>
      <configItem>
        <name>dvx</name>
        <shortDescription>DVX</shortDescription>
       <description>Dvorak International Extended (dead keys)</description>
        <languageList><iso639Id>eng</iso639Id></languageList>
     </configItem>
      <variantList/>
    </layout>

Then, add the following line to the end of the section ! layout in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst file.

dvx Dvorak International Extended (dead keys)

This is just before the section ! variant.

This worked for me on Karmic 9.10 the DVX show up as the layout indicator so I can differentiate it from the USA keyboard layout.

Frederick

I hope this helps someone else.

Frederick

[lucius.antonius]

Here's a blogpost that explains how I customized my own keyboard on karmic: http://www.doink.ch/an-x11-keyboard-...-old-germanic/

[deeflex]

I figured out that if the layout file is named in lowercase characters only and the layout is added to the evdev.lst then the indicators and group names show up.

So, add the following line to the end of the section ! layout in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst file.

dvx Dvorak International Extended (dead keys)

This is just before the section ! variant.

If you followed my previous instructions in my previous post then you will need to also change the

<name>DVX</name> to <name>dvx</name> in the code to be inserted in the evdev.xml file and rename the DVX file in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols directory to dvx. Change both the filename and the reference to it to all lower case.

================================================== ==========
If you are starting fresh follow the instructions below which I have edited to be complete and use the newly attached file with the complete instructions.



I hope this helps someone else.

Frederick

That worked like a charm!

[roberto.tomas]

hey guys - I wrote up, at elast the general ideas presented here, in the ubuntu wiki: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ho...%20definitions -- please have a look. I'd already done so much work on it before I found your thread, I decided no one should ahve to go through all that again

[Freiberg]

That is a really good, and concise, guide to doing this. If you don't mind, I'm going to try to edit my first post and put that link there, so that everybody can see it.