[Partially solved] 20.3 Xfce - How do I change the keyboard layout on the user login screen?

[NM64]

Somehow I seem to have managed to set Xfce's login screen to use Colemak (or maybe it was like that from the beginning from when I selected it during the OS installation?).

But now I want to change the layout to "Dvorak" (it's not actually Dvorak, rather it's a customized version of Colemak but I didn't want to overwrite the stock Colemak config). I'm able to have Mint use my custom not-so-Dvorak once I'm actually logged in, but the login screen is still set to Colemak even after a reboot and only has Colemak when I click on it in the top heading.

Thing is though, I don't want this to be a permanent change though; ideally I'd want it to list both Colemak and my not-so-"Dvorak" so that I can select which one I want.


(I tried making a stand-alone custom layout as well as renaming an existing layout, but none of that seemed to work - the only thing that seemed to work was straight-up changing the key configurations for an existing layout in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/, so that's what I did using Dvorak since its the layout listed directly below Colemak on the keyboard layouts list in Mint 20.3; on Mint 21.x I figure I'd edit the Colemak-DH listing instead)

[magnus7]

Default layout chosen during installation is used on login screen. To change it run this command in terminal:

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

[NM64]

That did indeed work, though it seems to have now made the login screen exclusively my not-so-"Dvorak".

I don't supposed there's a way to be able to set things up so that one can change keyboard layouts on the actual login screen between Colemak and my not-so-"Dvorak", or is this something that's just straight-up not possible?

[bobsled]

I'm trying to do the same thing. I have the following keyboard layouts

• Layout: English (UK)
• Layout: English (UK)
  • Variant: English (UK, Dvorak)

I can switch between them while logged in. However I cannot do that before logging in.
I would like to have the same keyboard layouts and be able to switch between them before logging in.

Any way to do that, preferably a simple way?

Linux Mint 21, Xfce, lightdm display manager (login manager)

[shedyed]

Lightdm has the keyboard icon on the top bar, even on the liveUSB. Can you use that to enable the layout on the login?

[bobsled]

I got to change the layout following the tutorial from the Arch Linux wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LightD ... tk-greeter

I ran

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localectl set-x11-keymap gb,gb pc105 dvorak,

and the login screen layout has changed, however, when I click on the login screen title bar, keyboard layout button, I don't see a drop down to select one between the two. It would be nice to be able to do that.

[NM64]

when I click on the login screen title bar, keyboard layout button, I don't see a drop down to select one between the two. It would be nice to be able to do that.

I just want to mention that this is what occurs for me as well; rather than it being a menu, it appears to just be a sort of notification of what the currently-active keyboard layout is.

[NM64]

Default layout chosen during installation is used on login screen. To change it run this command in terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

One interesting quirk is that simply replacing the "us" keyboard layout file with a modded one makes it apply to the login screen automatically without the need to run the aforementioned terminal command.

...but the "quirk" is that, if you do a ctrl+alt+f2 to to access a fullscreen terminal, your modded keyboard layout will not be active even after a reboot. The only way to apply your custom layout in such a fullscreen-terminal situation is to have previously run the aforementioned terminal command.