Carl’s notes

I use the Dvorak keyboard layout but ran into some problems after upgrading to Ubuntu Jaunty. After logging in to X I got an error popup saying

Error activating XKB configuration.
It can happen under various circumstances:
- a bug in libxklavier library
- a bug in X server (xkbcomp, xmodmap utilities)
- X server with incompatible libxkbfile implementation

X server version data:
The X.Org Foundation
70000000

If you report this situation as a bug, please include:
- The result of xprop -root | grep XKB
- The result of gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd

I think this only started happening after using the Gnome Keyboard Indicator applet to change some keyboard options. Keyboard configuration is located in the Gnome settings which you can edit with gconf-editor under /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/. You can reset these by going to the keyboard applet, keyboard preferences, Layouts tab and Reset to Defaults.

In /etc/default/console-setup the XKBLAYOUT, XKBVARIANT and XKBOPTIONS lines may also be invalid.
Using sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup won’t work. The error message is
Configuring console-setup
Unsupported settings in configuration file

The configuration file /etc/default/console-setup specifies a keyboard
layout and variant that are not supported by the configuration program.
Because of that, no questions about the keyboard layout will be asked
and your current configuration will be preserved.

I edited /etc/default/console-setup manually and set some values that are guaranteed to work.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

Then I used sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and the keyboard applet to configure my usual dvorak settings.

I use a MacBook Pro but unfortunately Dvorak isn’t defined for the Macbook keyboards so I have to stick to the standard pc105 keyboard definition. To complicate things a bit more I live in the UK but occasionally type in French and need accented characters. The pound/sterling symbol is only available on the UK dvorak layout (on the ‘3′ key) but the dead grave is only available on the US dvorak layout (on the tilde key). I’m now using a modified UK dvorak. In /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/gb I commented out the key <TLDE> line in the dvorak section. That line seems unnecessary anyway. It will probably get overwritten on the next update.

My /etc/default/console-setup contains

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="gb"
XKBVARIANT="dvorak"
XKBOPTIONS="lv3:rwin_switch"

And in gconf-editor, /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/layouts contains gb dvorak and gb mac, /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/options contains lv3 lv3:rwin_switch and grp grp:shift_caps_toggle.

This allows me to change between uk dvorak and uk qwerty by pressing shift and caps lock, and to access dead keys with the right apple key which would be the right windows key on many keyboards.