How to change keyboard layout permanently?

Question

I tried to change my keyboard layout to german:

loadkeys de

But this is only temporary, if I reboot, then it it set back to english again... I tried to make it permanent:

localectl set-keymap de

but I get, "localectl : command not found"

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 04 '19 at 20:46

1

you could try to manually modify sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="de"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"

answered Oct 04 '19 at 20:46

AlexOnLinux

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Saxtheowl · Answer 2 · 2019-10-04T15:20:21.253

0

You can simply put it into your bashrc, if it located in your default directory it will be:

echo loadkeys de >> ~/.bashrc

If it does not work you can try using rc.local which run just before the login screen, be careful I never tried this but it should be fine:

create or open the file rc.local with your favorite editor like nano /etc/rc.local

Then paste this text

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

loadkeys de
exit 0

then give it the proper right chmod +x /etc/rc.local

edited Oct 04 '19 at 15:20

answered Oct 04 '19 at 11:50

Saxtheowl

1,739
2
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That works, but it only works after login. So I have to take care at the login... is there a better solution? – Black Oct 04 '19 at 11:53
Try with setxkbmap de instead of loadkeys de – Saxtheowl Oct 04 '19 at 12:01
I get cannot open display "default display" – Black Oct 04 '19 at 12:13
Here is a similar question to your problem https://askubuntu.com/questions/514284/how-can-i-change-the-keyboard-layout-on-login-screen – Saxtheowl Oct 04 '19 at 12:31
Does not work either. I tried dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration and get "keyboard-configuration" not installed and no info available – Black Oct 04 '19 at 13:10
I edited my initial post – Saxtheowl Oct 04 '19 at 15:05
@Black: If neither localectl nor keyboard-configuration is installed, I have to ask which Ubuntu version you are using. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Oct 04 '19 at 15:12

How to change keyboard layout permanently?

2 Answers2