Bug 358791

Summary:	No way to switch keyboard layouts in KDE 4.10.5 except to use configuration file.
Product:	[Unmaintained] kxkb	Reporter:	Alexey Zhuravliov <alexzhur>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Andriy Rysin <arysin>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	major	CC:	nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Slackware
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Alexey Zhuravliov 2016-01-30 19:07:10 UTC

There was a way to place a keyboard layout indicator to the lower right corner in KDE 3 but not in KDE 4.

I have found a way to do it by adding a configuration file but there seems to be no way to do it inside KDE. The remedy is: you have to create a file called *00-keyboard.conf* in the directory */etc/X11/xorg.conf.d* containing:
---------------------- 00-keyboard.conf --------------------
Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "system-keyboard"
	Option "XkbLayout" "us,ru"
	Option "XkbOptions" "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
EndSection
--------------------- End of 00-keyboard.conf -------------
The languages here are US-English and Russian and the keys switching the layout are Control and Shift. After creating the file and launching X Window you will get a nice indicator in the lower right corner with letters showing witch keyboard layout is chosen (us or ru) it also lets you choosing layouts with your mouse.

The information was on the site of Archlinux ,namely at the address https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_X_configuration_files . You can also find several other hints on how to switch keyboard layouts in X Window there.

It's very annoying not to be able to pick a layout for your native language. People using just one language just may not understand how frustrating it can be not to be able to use another keyboard layout.

Reproducible: Always




My system:
Slackware Linux 14.1
KDE 4.10.5
Kernel 3.10.17

Comment 1 Alexey Zhuravliov 2016-07-17 15:07:33 UTC

I found the way to put the keyboard layouts switch to screen without editing any files. There is a gadget now which should be used to switch keyboard layouts. (You should right-click on the panel).

Comment 2 Alexey Zhuravliov 2016-07-19 13:35:20 UTC

It's rather a widget.

Comment 3 Alexey Zhuravliov 2017-04-04 15:46:08 UTC

It appears that the switch in KDE is present only when you make the file *00-keyboard.conf*.

So there is no way to switch keyboard layouts inside KDE without editing configuration files.

Comment 4 Alexey Zhuravliov 2017-05-10 09:08:55 UTC

I finally found the way the layout switching can be turned on. It's somewhere in Computer->Settings->Input Devices. It seems to be a strange place for tuning of layout switching I think.

Comment 5 Alexey Zhuravliov 2017-05-10 09:19:27 UTC

It's bad I didn't find it right away.

Comment 6 Nate Graham 2017-11-28 21:18:10 UTC

System Settings > Input Devices > Keyboard > Layouts > [x] Show Layout Indicator seems like a pretty intuitive place for this setting. Also, it should be on by default now, so the indicator will show up automatically once you have more than one layout.

The only way I think we could improve this is to move the Keyboard KCM to the top level, outside of "Input Devices", and that's something we'll be looking into as part of the KCM redesign that's happening right now: https://phabricator.kde.org/tag/plasma_kcm_redesign/