Window Maker and cyrillic keyboard layout

vpv · 10-20-2008, 03:02 AM

I am running Windowmaker on Debian 4.0. I would like to be able to switch my keyboard layout between English and Cyrillic cp1251. However I cannot find how to do this in the Windowmaker preferences. I also cannot find any tool for Windowmaker for switching between different keyboard layouts, such as for example the Keyboard Indicator for GNOME. Does anyone know how can I write in cyrillic in Windowmaker? Thanks for your help!

bathory · 10-20-2008, 06:12 AM

If you want to switch between languages, you should edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Find the "Keyboard" section and add the following:

Code:

Option "XkbLayout"   "us,ru"
Option "XkbOptions"  "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"

That means you can use the "Ctrl+Shift" keys to toggle languages.
Just make a backup of xorg.conf before editing it.

Regards

vpv · 10-20-2008, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bathory

If you want to switch between languages, you should edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Find the "Keyboard" section and add the following:

Code:

Option "XkbLayout"   "us,ru"
Option "XkbOptions"  "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"

That means you can use the "Ctrl+Shift" keys to toggle languages.
Just make a backup of xorg.conf before editing it.

Regards

Thank you very much for your reply! I added the above lines in my xorg.conf file and it works, BUT not for all applications. E.g.: in Firefox now i am able to write in cyrillic and to switch quickly between English and Bulgarian with "Ctrl+Shift" and this is already a big help. However when i try to write in cyrillic in a terminal emulator (Xterm, mrxvt) or in text editor such as Emacs, only squares or unreadable symbols are displayed. Do you have a clue how can i fix this?

Thanks for you help!

bathory · 10-21-2008, 04:04 AM

For xterm and mrxvt I can help, but for Emacs I don't, since I don't use it. Anyway, to be able to write cyrillic in xterm, you can edit /path/to/X11/app-defaults/XTerm and use a cyrillic font. Or run xterm like this:

Code:

xterm  -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-koi8-r"

For mrxvt you can edit ~/.mrxvtrc and change "Mrxvt.font" accordingly.

vpv · 10-22-2008, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bathory

For xterm and mrxvt I can help, but for Emacs I don't since I don't use it. Anyway, to be able to write cyrilliv in xterm, you can edit /path/to/X11/app-defaults/XTerm and use a cyrillic font. Or run xterm like this:

Code:

xterm  -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-koi8-r"

For mrxvt you can edit ~/.mrxvtrc and change "Mrxvt.font" accordingly.

Thanks for your reply! It worked and I can write in cyrillic now in mrxvt and xterm too! Also i accidentally found that there is a Unicode version of xterm in which i can write in cyrillic even without passing the above -fn option. For the unicode xterm the xorg.conf file modification was enough.

Thanks for all your help!