Flammie's settings and etc data
Xkbmap is probably the simplest way to set the keyboard layouts in linux X desktop, and the one that’s sustained the longest. There are more complicated ways like ibus but they are not necessary unless you need input methods instead of just keyboard layout change.
The xkb layout can be changed with setxkbmap:
setxkbmap fi,en,ru ,,phonetic grp:toggle_shifts
the syntax is annoyingly strange, but multiple layouts are separated with
commas, then the variants separated with commas, then whatever to use to change
the layout. For Russian I need phonetic variant since I cannot be bothered to
learn new layout. The default changing keys are usually like shift-ctrl or
alt-space, things that you hit accidentally way too often, I prefer double
shifts, there’s nearly never a need to hit them otherwise.
The setxkbmap command works well in windowing system’s startup, could be
xinitrc or such, I use .config/i3/autostart.sh for i3 specifically, started
by .config/i3/config… which for some reason does not always stick. Often you
have to chant the setxkbmap from command line anyways.
If you use systemd the localectl can be used to set xkbmaps as well:
localectl -set-x11-keymap fi,en,ru pc104 ,,phonetic
ocalectl wants to know the keyboard model, you can try find it in the list
but something like pc10X is probably ok. It seems that systemd’s localectl at
least now (2022) writes a profoundly stupid Xorg configuration that forces all
plugged in input devices to be keyboards and reset keyboard settings (e.g.
headphones with volume button). So probably better to just delete
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf afterwards.
If you don’t use desktop environment with keyboard applet it can be cool to see
which keyboard is activated, this is exactly the only function of gxkb. With
i3 you will probably place the setxkbmap in the i3 config file.
With gxkb you can also throw it into its own config file
.config/gxkb/gxkb.conf, yet another format of course:
[xkb config]
model=pc105
layouts=fi,no,ru
variants=,,phonetic
toggle_option=grp:shifts_toggle
And gxkb uses some ugly ass flags as language codes.