How to change the login screen keyboard layout?

Question

I switched from Qwerty to Dvorak, but the login screen still uses Qwerty.

How can I configure the login screen to use Dvorak?

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 20 '11 at 10:33

16

In Ubuntu / Natty, edit the file /etc/default/keyboard, look for the XKBVARIANT setting, and set it to this:

XKBVARIANT="dvorak"

This will tell GDM, the login manager, which keyboard layout to use per default.

Note: the comments in the file warn that this only takes effect after udev is restarted; I would just reboot the machine after changing it.

answered Jun 20 '11 at 10:33

Eric

This helped me with another problem. While I kept removing the Qwerty keyboard from my keyboard preferences, after I rebooted it always showed up again. I then removed it from the /etc/default/keyboard file as you said and I now no longer have the problem. – snth Aug 07 '11 at 12:39
1

I can confirm this still works on Trusty. In fact it seems to be the only way to change the login screen keyboard layout. – poolie May 20 '14 at 04:11

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