A simple applet for switching between keyboard layouts in NomadBSD.

[globetrotterdk]

A simple applet for switching between keyboard layouts would be very useful in NomadBSD. I am aware of vladas response to my post in the forum, however for a user friendly desktop, I believe that something along the lines of XFCE's xfce4-xkb-plugin would be much more user friendly, frankly than vladas solution. I have tried installing xfce4-xkb-plugin directly, but haven't found a way of getting it to appear in Tint2 at login.

[mrclksr]

Usually, if you configure two keyboard layouts at the NomadBSD setup, such an applet will start automatically on session start.
You can proceed as follows if you haven't configured a second keyboard layout yet:

1. Set your keyboad layouts in ~/.config/xkbdmap.sh by adding the line

setxkbdmap -layout us,dk

2. Make gxkb [1] start on session start via a new entry in dsbautostart.
3. Log out and in again.

You can switch between layouts by clicking on the flag symbol in Tint.

---

1. If not installed, install x11/gxkb

[globetrotterdk]

My use case scenario is two keyboards, three keyboard layouts. I have tried gxkb, however it only shows one keyboard layout - a question mark in Tint2 and nothing in Plank. It is also impossible to move the icons around in Plank. I have also tried editing the ~/.config/plank.ini file directly, but to no effect. Here is my ~/.config/xkbdmap.sh:
setxkbdmap -layout dk,us,ru
At install, I have tried configuring two keyboard layouts - default Danish and secondary US English, however the Danish keyboard was always dominated by the US English (a bit like real life linguistics on occasion) and I could never get the Danish keyboard to work, so I stopped configuring the US English as a secondary keyboard, but there is definitely something going on...

[mrclksr]

a question mark in Tint2 and nothing in Plank.

Plank, unlike Tint2, does not have a tray where gxkb can run in.

At install, I have tried configuring two keyboard layouts - default Danish and secondary US English, however the Danish keyboard was always dominated by the US English (a bit like real life linguistics on occasion) and I could never get the Danish keyboard to work, so I stopped configuring the US English as a secondary keyboard, but there is definitely something going on...

An alternative is IBus. You can configure it as follows:

EDIT:

$ sudo pkg install ibus

Add the lines

export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export XIM_PROGRAM="ibus-daemon"
export XIM_ARGS="--daemonize --xim"
ibus-daemon&

to ~/.xprofile near the beginning of the file, where the other exports are.

The default tray icon color (dark blue) is hard to read. Change it to white:

$ dconf write /desktop/ibus/panel/xkb-icon-rgba "'white'"

After logging out and in again, you'll see IBus's tray icon in Tint2. Right-click on it to open the context menu. Go to Settings->Input Method to add layouts. Left-click on the tray icon to select from your layouts.