[K12OSN] keyboard layout

[robert <focus futuredomain net>]

hi paul,
this is what I've discovered so far - 
there's more than one way to turn on a light- :))
run  the command:
xev  to get the keycodes for your keyboard

keycodes need to be translated to XFree86 format (HEX)
view list at:
/opt/ltsp/i386/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/keycodes/xfree86

Jamie Zawinski wrote a gui keymap script called
xkeycaps with 40+ keyboard layouts,it will create
a .xmodmap in $HOME, in effect each user could switch
keyboards on the fly, however it solves only part of the problem.

XFree86 states you could have 3 layouts using the meta key or ALT_R key
however in ltsp it hasn't worked for me-

so from what I gather there are two ways (maybe more) to customize
your keyboard.

add a script to $HOME/.bash_profile or .xsession with new keymap,

add .xmodmap to $HOME/

add keyboard entries to lts.conf and use the iso keyboard layouts
found in /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/ or modify them to
your needs.

for me I need a bilingual english US/french ca layout
however the keymaps the way they are is useless, you'll see why-

-XFree86
XkbModel (pc101-106 or a known brand)
XkbLayout (keycodes)
XkbSymbols (caracters,ie:en,fr,latin,asian....)
XKBOptions (I think this is for meta keys)

for french the best layout is fr. it has all the french symbols
but the keyboard is completely different from us -Q is replaced with A
among other keys,so its too difficult to memorize both.
The ca_enhanced layout only has one usefull ALT_R key -egrave.

with MS you can use ALT_R + decimal codes on the number pad for a 
caracter map. XFree86 is nt setup to do this.
that's as far as I've gotten so far-

reference:
http://www.europe.redhat.com/documentation/mini-HOWTO/Intkeyb-4.php3
http://reviewed.homelinux.org/en/xfreekeyboard.html
http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/

robert