Re: [K12OSN] keyboard layout

[Paul Pianta <pantz lqt ca>]

hey people

thanks for all of your responses - sorry i took so long to reply but i 
got a bit too busy to check mail.

anyhoo i thought i should let you know how i managed to solve the 
keyboard problem - first a bit of background ...

i was trying to implement an 'acnor' keyboard which is a Canadian 
Multilingual standard (that hardly anyone uses!! because it's too 
complicated). I was needing this because i am working on a project for a 
governmental organisation and the Québec government are dedicated to 
using this 'standardised' keyboard. I eventually found out that XFree86 
has a symbols map for this layout - 'ca' - but it doesn't work with 
xmodmap (ie. there is no xmodmap.ca). This was unfortunate because 
'xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmaps/xmodmap.XX' works for changing the keyboard 
'live' on thin clients.

so in searching for another solution i ended up writing a dirty script 
that changes one line in both XF86Config and lts.conf, and then does a 
'killall gdm-binary' which is required because 'Ctrl-Alt-Backspace' 
wasn't enough to get the new keyboard at the login screen. The 'killall 
gdm-binary' unfortunately logs out the user on the server AND all other 
terminal users (i said it was a dirty script!). Even worse - terminal 
users need to reboot completely before the keyboard change will take effect.

In summary, if there is a file matching your keyboard layout in 
'/usr/share/xmodmap/' then you are in luck - you can type 'xmodmap 
/usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.XX' on your terminals and you will get the 
keyboard you want ('gkb_xmmap XX' is an alias to xmodmap which will also 
work!).

If you don't have an xmodmap.XX file for your keyboard - good luck 
finding a 'clean' solution! (and dont hesitate to call on me for a dirty 
one - solution that is!)

pantz