Hi guys, I run ubuntu 14.04 and I need to find a way to quickly swap from an english keyboard to a russian one. Ideally,it would be better to have it as a virtual keyboard so that I can see where each character sits on the keyboard. Do I have to install any cirillic package or any software to handle the language and something to allow the virtual keyboard to appear?
thanks

Install andy. It allows you to switch languages. A bit like windows icon that allows differentinput methods.

If you just want a quick temporary way to switch keyboard layout,

Or whatever layout double abbreviation you need. Loadkeys will onlyswitch keyboard layout, not allow you to type the cirrilics, andy will.


I think ubuntu has easy setup menus to do that if you go to languages or accesibility. Cannot remember ubuntu well though.

happy to install andy, but I don't seem to be able to find it anywhere, not a reference on the net, not a website, where do I find it?
thanks

http://www.localizingjapan.com/blog/...s-trusty-tahr/

There is a guide. Anthy is the one I was looking for. Sorry for spelling. But the languages/accessibility should have been a pretty straight forward hint for your distro.

Appologies for the rabbit hunt.

No problem at all, no wonder I couldn't find it :-)! I will have a look at it, thanks a lot!

Right, so I followed that procedure but I don't get the language icon at the very top as I should according to the guide.
I installed the russian language from language support,restarte, but I don't get any language icon.I run again just in case, restarted, and the icon appeared just before I logged in (on the login screen), but after I logged in, it disappeared again
I haven't installed anthy as yet though, as the guide didn't ask for it. Should I install it?
thanks

Check if ibus is installed and running. If not start it. Also make sure anthy is installed.

thanks, so here is what I've done.
Ibus seems to be installed:
Same goes for anthy:
Since I have no idea whether ibus is running I went to startup applications and added ibus to it (see attached screenshot ibus_cropped.jpg) and then restarted ubuntu. Still no language button to the top, this is what I have instead (desktop.jpg):

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You don't need any of that stuff, andy or ibus. Nor do you use loadkeys, which is for the console, not the GUI. I have 3 keyboard drivers and it's really very simple.

Somewhere in Ubuntu's applications there should be a keyboard configuration tool. If you run that, you can install extra extra drivers. You should also be able to select a key or key combination for the GroupShift function: toggling from one keyboard driver to another. I use ScrollLock, because you should also be able to set the ScrollLock light to come on when you're not using using the default keyboard, which prevents accidently typing τηιϲ ϲορτ οφ τηινγ. You should also be able to specify whether changing drivers will be (1) global, (2) confined to the active program, or (3) confined to the active window. You should also be able to put an applet on the panel which shows which keyboard is in use, and enable you to change by clicking on it.

Whether all that that applies to Unity I can't say, as this computer can't run it. If it doesn't, then use Mate/Xfce/KDE/Cinnamon.

hi thanks, to be honest, whichever way I get there I don't really mind, as long as I can easily toggle between english and russian. ericson007's solutions seemed pretty simple, but something in my laptop doesn't like it I suppose. Happy to give yours a go of course.
Is the attached what you're referring to?

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Ah OK, good news, apparently since I added russian to the screen above (layout settings under keyboard) I know get the "en"/"ru" button on my toolbar. I guess I used a bit of a mixed approach.
It's working now, so happy with that. Thank you both guys!

@david: Would installing drivers not just allow mapping of a different keyboard layout? I always thought ibus is required to have the keyboard input in a different language. On my system I use a setup similar to yours to map keys, but if i need language input, the language packs and ibus is a must. Or do I have the cat's tail for non asian languages?

Glad you got it working though.

Ah forgot, the only thing is that since I don't know the position of the russian letters on the keyboard it's a bit difficult to know what's what. Is there anyway to have like a virtual keyboard to pop up so i know where each letter sits where?
thanks

With anthy, you should be able to use your keyboard map, i.e. us, and anthy will translate to cyrillic. Remove the russian keyboard keymap. See what happens.

There are two types of Russian keyboard. What one might call the "Russian Russian" has the same layout has a keyboard you'd buy in Russia, so the home row starts with Ф (ef) instead of A. If you don't know to type in Russian, there's the phonetic Russian, which matches as many Cyrillic letters as possible to their Latin counterparts, so that the home row starts with A. When you install a keyboard driver, you should be able to select the phonetic, although naturally the default is the standard one.

On my system, right clicking on the panel indicator gives a "show current layout" option for a popup if I've forgotten where something goes.

For diagrams, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Russian