mapping the keyboard globally - again

Charles Smith cts.private at yahoo.com
Mon Mar 25 12:38:31 UTC 2013


This question is asked regularly: how do globally change the default keyboard map?

The answer to be had on the web are mostly to run some apt script.  Less frequently, setxkbmap is mentioned.  That´s the method I use, but it gets a bit confused with xmodmap - depending which one gets run first.

I would like to know the configuration files that need to be changed in order to specify my favorite language.

I tried /etc/default/keyboard, but it didn't do the trick.


Like babies, computers are innocent at startup - they don't care what language they will have to speak.  Something in the configuration determines it.  It is hopefully not the case that the installation disks patch the executable files with language information - it has to be configured in one (or more) files somewhere.

Running a script as root is not the same thing as changing a file as root.  If just you change a file, that limits the universe of consequences that can follow.  But if you run a script, you relinquish complete control.


I'm not sure why it's so hard to find out the information.  This is linux, not windows.  A lot of us are interested in how things work.  And it's important for decision-making - whether you decide to have one configuration or another is based on how you perceive the architecture of the system.





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