How to setup international keyboard in X Window with Xmodmap and XKB

by Juraj Sipos, [email protected]

v1.3, 01 December 2001

How to setup international keyboard in Linux or Unix with Xmodmap and XKB written by (c) Juraj Sipos. The Xmodmap is a file that XFree86 reads in order to give you a keyboard layout. This solution will work for you in setting up any international keyboard for (Debian, RedHat, Mandrake, CorelLinux) Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and possibly every Unix that uses XFree86. The advantage of this howto is that it is not architecture specific and will work on all other systems. However, it is a little experimental in that that it bypasses some standardized XFree86 solutions (with respect to its older versions), although a standard form of internationalization is included too.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1. Copyright
1.2. Revision history
1.3. Introduction

2. Setting up international keyboard in X Window System with Xmodmap and XKB

2.1. Quick start
2.2. How to do it - this experimental or nonstandard solution is not necessary for newer versions of XFree86. Skip this if not interested
2.3. Xmodmap theory and standard Xmodmap solution
2.4. Experimental .Xmodmap sample file for the Slovak language typewriter layout
2.5. Character sets
2.6. ISO-8859-2 (ISO Latin2) character set
2.7. The standard ISO8859-2 definitions in the Xmodmap file

3. How this Xmodmap solution works on various systems

3.1. SuSE 6.4 and 7.0
3.2. SuSE 7.0 with Xfree86 version 3.3.6 and KDE 1.x
3.3. Mandrake Linux 7.2
3.4. Mandrake 8.1
3.5. RedHat 5.1, 5.2, 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 (XFree86 3.3.6 and older)
3.6. RedHat 7.2
3.7. FreeBSD 3.1 and 3.2
3.8. FreeBSD 4.1
3.9. FreeBSD 4.4.
3.10. Corel Linux 1.0 and 1.1
3.11. ISO* specifications

4. Some national Xmodmap files

4.1. German
4.2. Hungarian
4.3. Czech
4.4. Polish
4.5. French
4.6. Croatian/Slovenian
4.7. Lithuanian keyboard (AZERTY layout)
4.8. Polish

5. Troubleshooting and some Xmodmap tips

5.1. Troubleshooting
5.2. Tips

6. Links

6.1. Other information on internationalization
6.2. Links to some non ISO8859-1 fonts

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		Introduction