Hi all,

I'm currently using the Svorak keyboard layout, but want to be able to use IPA symbols, preferably using the Alt+Gr key. I noticed there's no existing IPA keyboard layout for KDE, so I made one, following instructions on this page
http://hektor.umcs.lublin.pl/~mikosmul/ ... s-xkb.html

I ended up making a new layout variant called "Sweden - IPA" under the Sweden file, and saved the changes to
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/se
which had the existing Swedish layouts before I started.

I've restarted since saving the changes, and when I open the keyboard layouts under Regional and Language options, "Sweden - IPA" does not appear. What can I do to make this layout usable?

Cheers,
Aston

Here is what I added to the "se" file;

// Swedish Dvorak with IPA on Alt+Gr combinations
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "IPA" {

name[Group1]="Sweden - IPA";

include "se(basic)"

key <AD01> { [ aring, Aring, ɒ, ɑ ] };
key <AD02> { [ adiaeresis, Adiaeresis, ɐ, ɞ ] };
key <AD03> { [ odiaeresis, Odiaeresis, ə, ɜ ] };
...

I added IPA to my xorg.list as below

...
mac se: Macintosh
svdvorak se: Svdvorak
IPA se: Sweden - IPA
legacy ch: Legacy
...

Hello Aston,

i try to do something very similar, but i still can not see my variant
in the "KDE4 Keyboard Layout Module".
It works nice when using:

setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us -variant myvariant

Do you see your IPA in the Keyboard Layout Module ?
Do you use KDE3 or KDE4 ?

cheers wally

Hey mate,
Nah can't see IPA in the Keyboard Layout Module at all. Using KDE 4 (Kubuntu Lucid). That command sounds well worth a try, just wanted to get it showing up like the other ones so that I can make some IPA layouts to submit to the KDE team.
Cheers a heap,
Aston

Hmm, that's funny, if I type
setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout se -variant IPA
I get "Error loading new keyboard description"
If I type
setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout se -variant dvorak
It's fine, and
xkb_symbols "IPA" {
Is definitely in my /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/se

Same miracles here.
It would be great to know how KDE4 manage this stuff in detail.
Which files are involved and how to modify them.
I'm still searching for answers.

wally

What about

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setxkbmap se -variant IPA

?

I've also made my own keyboard layout (funny thing is, it's also based on svorak/sv-dvorak), and if I remember correctly, I did the same thing as you. The difference I can see is that I don't have

Code: Select all

include "se(basic)"

although that shouldn't be a problem.

The command I use to change keyboard layout is

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setxkbmap se -variant chvorak

(and a similar one for QWERTY). It does show up in System Settings as the default value, but when I click on the list it disappears.

More documentation would be nice yes, although I believe it's more an X thing than KDE. I used the same page as OP and http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/113715 .

Hans wrote:What about

Code: Select all

setxkbmap se -variant IPA

Hahaha, so it can be done and I'm not completely barking up the wrong tree. That command still gets me "Error loading new keyboard description", in fact it does that for any layout I pick other than "dvorak", which I'm already using (so If I write "setxkbmap se -variant rus" it's a no-go, but with "setxkbmap se -variant dvorak", no problem).

I'll give that article a try, and I'm trying to get on the KDE language team mailing list too. Will be sure to try and write some docco on it if I get it working!

OK, I can get it to appear in KDE's regional settings, you just need to add it to evdev.xml in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/ (typed that from memory, it's in my bloody places in Dolphin now). Only now I can't escape the realisation that it's completely ignoring the mappings in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/se - I don't even know how it's possible for it to ignore those mappings, it must get them from somewhere, but I even tried changing å to "b" on all of the maps (not just the new one I made) and it has no effect!

By the way, this tutorial is much better for current versions of kubuntu than the earlier one I was using http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Blog/custom-keyboard-in-linuxx11