need help changing my keyboard layout
 

I've installed slackware 10.2 not so long ago. I've got a belgian keyboard. I can type everything in azerty, as it is supposed to be, but the keys that require combinations with the "alt" key don't work. I've tried modifying my keyboard layout in xorg.conf, but even if i put it on "us", it stayed azerty. I'm using xfce as my window manager. I think xfce uses the keyboard layout from the system instead of the one defined in xorg.conf. I would appreciate it if someone could help me with this.

I'm fairly sure xfce doesn't use the system keyboard layout, since it is an X app. I last gave this advice to a friend, so replace "uk" with your desired locale.

As borrowed from this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/331612

"To load the UK keys by default in the console, edit /etc/rc.d/rc.keymap and change the keymap from *us.map* to *uk.map*."

From the same thread as above:

To change the keyboard map in X, you need to edit the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[code snippet from xorg.conf]
#
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"


# These are the default XKB settings for X.Org
#
# Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc101"
# Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" ""
# Option "XkbOptions" ""

Option "XkbLayout" "uk" # <-- this is the important bit
[/code]

You may want to look at /var/log/xorg.0.log to make sure that you're passing the correct value to XkbLayout. You might find that although X starts (since an incorrect or invalid XkbLayout isn't a fatal error) you're giving it an unrecognised option or similar.

Good luck!
- Piete.

When I use the command

setxkbmap -layout be

my keyboard get set correctly. The strangest thing is that I can set my keyboard on a completely different layout eg us, which I thought was qwerty, and still get an azerty keyboard.

My xorg.conf settings:

Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "be"
Option "XkbVariant" "be"

Another snippet from /var/log/Xorg.0.log

(**) Option "CoreKeyboard"
(**) Keyboard1: Core Keyboard
(**) Option "Protocol" "standard"
(**) Keyboard1: Protocol: standard
(**) Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
(**) Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbRules: "xorg"
(**) Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbModel: "pc105"
(**) Option "XkbLayout" "be"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbLayout: "be"
(**) Option "XkbVariant" "be"
(**) Keyboard1: XkbVariant: "be"
(**) Option "CustomKeycodes" "off"
(**) Keyboard1: CustomKeycodes disabled
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Keyboard1" (type: KEYBOARD)
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Mouse1" (type: MOUSE)
(--) Mouse1: PnP-detected protocol: "ImPS/2"
(II) Mouse1: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!

For me, everything seems allright, but since I'm new to slackware and have got only one year experience with Fedora Core it could be that there is something wrong with it ;)

I changed this:

Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "be"
Option "XkbVariant" "be"

to this:

Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "be"

in /etc/X11/xorg.conf and everything is working fine, so I am glad to be able to say that this topic is closed.

Thanks for all the help.

Didier