Hi all,
I am using Colemak keyboard therefore I cannot type on normal layout. Everything is set in KDE perfectly since install, however, my keyboard layout is ignored in TTY consoles (CTRL+ALT+number). So everytime I have to do something out of Xorg and KDE, I am stuck.
How to properly change keyboard layout outside of Xorg so it’s remembered correctly system-wide?
Thanks.
Either open up the Manjaro Settings Manager from the menu or open up… 
System Settings → Manjaro → Keyboard
That’s where you set keyboard for KDE.
When you switch to TTY, everything set there is ignored.
So i ask again,
How to properly change keyboard layout outside of Xorg so it’s remembered correctly system-wide?
Thanks.
No, that’s where you set your keyboard system-wide. Setting your keyboard for Plasma only is under…
System Settings → Hardware → Input Devices → Keyboard
It’s set in both places. I’ve been there many times. I searched for keyboard word in whole settings as well. It doesn’t work. TTY still have some mangled US-default layout. In settings I have Colemak everywhere. I will send screenshots tomorrow once in am in the office.
Have you checked installed Language Packs in Manjaro Settings Manager ?
I do not know KDE menu structure but this would open the GUI to check
manjaro-settings-manager -m msm_language_packages & exit
Thanks! I went there and indeed I had few dictionaries to install. I installed them all and rebooted my computer.
Everything is as it was in KDE (Colemak) working OK. However, when I switch to TTY (CTRL+ALT+F1), that’s how my login look like:
No changes.
My login “pioruns” spells as “rl;sijd” when I type it on Colemak keyboard. I have to plug in normal USB keyboard in order to continue, as this is some default US or UK layout instead of Colemak UK I selected.
Thanks for your reply.
This is my settings in places you mentioned:
Keyboard Settings: English (UK) variant English (UK, Colemak) is selected.
Hardware/Input Devices/Keyboard/Hardware: Generic | Generic 105-key PC
Hardware/Input Devices/Keyboard/Layouts: only gb, English (UK, Colemak) variant is installed and nothing else
TTY layout is still other than Colemak and I can’t type.
Hi @cryptocurious,
According to this page:
To search for a keymap, use the following command, replacing
<search_term>with the code for your language, country, or layout:$ localectl list-keymaps | grep -i <search_term>
If you find it, test that it works with:
loadkeys keymap
You can create/edit /etc/vconsole.conf to change the keyboard layout used in TTYs:
KEYMAP=de # e.g. German layout
The list of key maps can be queried using localectl list-keymaps. See the relevant page of the Arch Wiki for more information.
Hence my explanation for searching for it,
You can, but I recommend testing it first, to make sure everything’s working first, before trying to make it persistent and possibly messing it up.
I also recommend rebuilding the initramfs after changing the keyboard layout, because the initramfs already loads the keyboard layout at boot time.
@Mirdarthos, @pobrn, this was spot on advice! I put “KEYMAP=colemak” in /etc/vconsole.conf instead of default “uk”. And it works (see below).
I’ve checked available layouts in virtual console. Unfortunately, Colemak-UK is not one of them.
$ localectl list-keymaps | grep uk
atari-uk-falcon
dvorak-uk
dvorak-ukp
mac-uk
sunt5-uk
sunt6-uk
uk
Colemak UK variant exists only for X11.
Without X11, I have to resort to “colemak”, which is US colemak variant. That’s what I am going to use in VC. So I have colemak US in console (I can live with that) and Colemak UK in KDE. Not ideal, but I will live with that.
Thank you all for help with this 
I changed the solution mark as the correct solution was already given in the link provided by @Mirdarthos in post #9.
I believe you could bring the maintainers’ attention to the lack of UK Colemak on the mailing list, and possibly provide the necessary information to have it included.
This topic was automatically closed 15 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.