About

keyboard-layout pools all the needed files to set up my custom XKB keyboard layout (takbl) on Linux Ubuntu.

You can install takbl following the step describe in Installation section.

In Learning a new keyboard layout section I answer to the questions:

• How to learn a new keyboard layout? and,
• Why does picking the right keyboard layout matter?.

In My understanding of XKB section, you can read about how does XKB work and how can you make your own XKB keyboard layout.

Layouts

takbl basic

takbl Spanish variant

takbl French variant

Motivation

1. I want a keyboard layout that fits my needs (I mostly use my keyboard to write CODE).
2. After typing all day long, my hands and fingers use to hurt me. This is principaly due to the use of the PINKY on the keys Backspace, Control, Enter, Shift and Tab. TypeMatrix does a great job in this area putting Backspace and Enter in the center of the keyboard. But It's not enougth when you're writing code because you want the Tab key in the center (is there anyone who writes code without code completion or snippet expansion almost always bound to the Tab key?). Moreover, TypeMatrix put the symbols [ ] ( ) { } in the edges, which is bad when you write code.
3. When you write code, you use the symbols [ ] ( ) { } constantly, SO they CAN'T be at the edges of your keyboard layout. This is why I discarded the keyboard layouts QWERTY and DVORAK (also due to the PINKY problem of the keys Backspace, Control, ... described above).
4. As I'm French, I had a look on BÉPO. Two things are good in the layout: 1) the symbols [ ] ( ) { } are not at the edges (accessible with key-chords using Alt Gr key), and 2) the punctuation symbols . : , ; are at the center of the keyboard. However I discarded it because of the PINKY problem of the keys Backspace, Control ... described above.
5. In addition, I want to access to the symbols _ ' " / | \ % @ # = $ ~ < > + * - ^ ! ? without moving my hands.

Learning a new keyboard layout

In that section I'm talking to programmers but I'm sure that those thoughts can be applied to anyone that works in an area that involves a heavy use of the keyboard.

How to learn a new keyboard layout?

I imagine that there is a lot of literature on how to learn a new keyboard layout. For sure, there exists a lot more literature about how to learn anything. At the end of the day, I think the only truth about learning is: the more you practice the better you'll get.

So if you want to learn a new keyboard layout, don't hesitate too much, just spend time on it with passion and that will pay off.

To be clearer, these are the rules I follow that you can apply, if you want, whatever keyboard layout you choose to adopt:

1. be clear on the reasons you choose this layout and not another,
2. pick any application that helps you practice your typing (accuracy, speed and fluidity). I use klavaro. It is simple and customizable. As they said in the home page: Klavaro is libre software that intends to be keyboard and language independent...,
3. practice everyday as much as you can,
4. be patient this will pay off for the rest of your programmer life.

Why does picking the right keyboard layout matter?

Assuming that you're an average programmer. Usually, you're going to write code:

• 5 days a week,
• 5 hours a day (the rest is for readings and meetings),
• at least during 10 years (if it's not 40 or more).

You're going to use your keyboard 13,000 HOURS (5 x 5 x 52 x 10) during those 10 years of programming. This corresponds to 541 DAYS (13000 / 24).

THINK ABOUT THAT!

When I did the math a couple of years ago, I thought it was worth spending a few days to think about my keyboard layout and worth spending a couple of weeks to learn it. This is a ridiculous amount of time compare to 541 DAYS.

Installation

This configuration works on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Note that we have to use Xorg instead of the default Wayland.

To install takbl keyboard layout, run the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/tonyaldon/keyboard-layout
cd keyboard-layout
make install

Then you have to RESTART your computer so that Ubuntu 22.04 starts using Xorg (instead of Wayland) which is necessary for this X11 keyboard setup.

If you want to remove takbl keyboard layout installation, run the command:

make remove

Note that when you run make install, 4 things happen:

1. A backup of the files /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml, /etc/default/keyboard and /etc/gdm3/custom.conf is made in the directory .backup,

2. Wayland is disable in order to force the login screen to use Xorg by making the following symbolic link:

    /etc/gdm3/custom.conf => ./etc/gdm3/custom.conf
   

3. The keyboard layout takbl is installed by making the following hardlinks:

    /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml => ./usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml
    /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/takbl => ./usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/takbl
   

4. The keyboard layout takbl becomes the default keyboard layout by making the following hardlink:

    /etc/default/keyboard => ./etc/default/keyboard
   

If you want to know more about XKB, you can read the section My understanding of XKB

Variants

takbl is designed to be used to write code. However sometimes, I write some Spanish or French. For that reason, I added two variants takbl es and takbl fr to the basic layout takbl.

• For the Spanish layout, I added the following characters: á é í ó ú ü ñ ¿ ¡.
• For the French layout, I added the following characters: à â æ é è ê ë î ï ô œ ù û ü ÿ ç.

Not that when you load a variant you lose some characters very useful when you're programming but not when you are writing standard text. It doesn't bother me because:

1. I'm neither a French nor a Spanish novel writer, I write code and code documentation and when I write some Spanish or French I'm not writing code.
2. I almost always write inside emacs where I have a key binding with which I can switch quickly between the keyboard layout takbl and its variants takbl es and takbl fr.
3. By the way, there is always a TRADEOFF.

To switch between takbl and its variants, you can run the following commands:

setxkbmap -layout takbl              # basic
setxkbmap -layout takbl -variant es  # Spanish
setxkbmap -layout takbl -variant fr  # French

My understanding of XKB

XKB

How does XKB load a keyboard layout?

When you load a keyboard layout, for instance by running the command setxkbmap -rules evdev -layout us (for the standard US QUERTY), XKB load the rules in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml file and looks for the layout us. If the layout us is found in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml, XKB seeks the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us. If this file exist, the keyboard layout defined in that file is loaded (in our case the US QUERTY layout is loaded).

The directory /usr/share/X11/xkb/ looks like this:

.
├── compat
│   ├── ...
├── geometry
│   ├── ...
├── keycodes
│   ├── ...
├── rules
│   ├── ...
│   ├── base.xml
│   ├── evdev.xml
│   ├── ...
├── symbols
│   ├── ...
│   ├── fr
│   ├── ...
│   ├── us
│   ├── ...
└── types
    ├── ...

How to list all the XKB keyboard layouts?

To see all the available keyboard layouts, list the files in the directory /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ by running the command:

ls /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/

Why does XKB choose to load the rules in the file evdev.xml and not base.xml?

I don't know, but in the documention we can read that On Linux systems, the evdev rules are most commonly used, on other systems the base rules are used.

So like me if you're running Linux Ubuntu, the rules XKB loads are in the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml. And if you are using setxkbmap to load keyboard layouts, running one of those following command lines leads to the same result (loading the US QUERTY keyboard layout):

setxkbmap -layout us
setxkbmap -rules evdev -layout us

How to set a default keyboard layout that last across sessions?

Setting your keyboard layout with setxkbmap doesn't last across sessions and as a consequency is not set when you log into your session.

Your system load the keyboard layout set in /etc/default/keyboard file. For instance, if you use the US QUERTY keyboard layout, /etc/default/keyboard file should look like this:

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

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

BACKSPACE="guess"

Now if you want to set the Spanish QUERTY keyboard layout (that is defined in the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/es) as your default keyboard layout, you just have to modify the line XKBLAYOUT="us" by XKBLAYOUT="es" in the file /etc/default/keyboard, which lead to the file:

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="es"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"

How do I get the current XKB settings?

If you want to have some informations on your current XKB settings , run the commands:

setxkbmap -query
setxkbmap -query -verbose 10

Make your own XKB keyboard layout

In this section, I'll describe how I made takbl keyboard layout.

1. In the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml I added the following snippet as a child of the node <layoutList>:

   <layout>
     <configItem>
       <name>takbl</name>
       <shortDescription>TA</shortDescription>
       <description>Tony Aldon (kbl basic form)</description>
       <languageList>
         <iso639Id>fra</iso639Id>
       </languageList>
     </configItem>
     <variantList>
       <variant>
         <configItem>
           <name>es</name>
           <description>Tony Aldon (kbl Spanish)</description>
         </configItem>
       </variant>
       <variant>
         <configItem>
           <name>fr</name>
           <description>Tony Aldon (kbl French)</description>
         </configItem>
       </variant>
     </variantList>
   </layout>

   This declares a new default keyboard layout named takbl (<name>takbl</name>) and two variants es (<name>es</name>) and fr (<name>fr</name>).

2. Now when xkb loads takbl, it looks for the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/takbl where the default layout takbl and its variants es and fr are defined by describing the mappings between keycode names and keysymbols:

   default partial alphanumeric_keys
   xkb_symbols "basic" {
   
      // map keycode names with keysymbols
      // this is what defined your keyboard layout
   
      // Second row
      key <AD01> { [ w, W             ] }; // w W
      key <AD02> { [ b, B,  parenleft ] }; // b B (
      key <AD03> { [ n, N, parenright ] }; // n N )
   
      // ...
   }
   
   partial alphanumeric_keys
   xkb_symbols "es" {
   
       include "takbl(basic)"
   
      // map keycode names with keysymbols
      // it uses "basic" layout defined aboved overwriting
      // with the mappings you define here
   
      // Second row
      key <AD01> { [ w, W,     oacute,     Oacute ] }; // w W ó Ó
      key <AD02> { [ b, B, udiaeresis, Udiaeresis ] }; // b B ü Ü
      key <AD03> { [ n, N,     eacute,     Eacute ] }; // n N é É
   
      // ...
   }
   
   partial alphanumeric_keys
   xkb_symbols "fr" {
   
       include "takbl(basic)"
   
      // map keycode names with keysymbols
      // it uses "basic" layout defined aboved overwriting
      // with the mappings you define here
   
      // Second row
      key <AD01> { [ w, W, ecircumflex, Ecircumflex ] }; // w W ê Ê
      key <AD02> { [ b, B,      egrave,      Egrave ] }; // b B è È
      key <AD03> { [ n, N,      eacute,      Eacute ] }; // n N é É
   
      // ...
   }
   

3. To map keycode names and keysymbols when you define your keyboard layout, you need to know the mapping between keycode names and keycodes and the keysymbols XKB uses.

4. You can find the mapping between keycode names and keycodes in the directory /usr/share/X11/xkb/keycodes and in our case, specificaly in the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/keycodes/evdev:

   default xkb_keycodes "evdev" {
       minimum = 8;
       maximum = 255;
   
       // ...
   
       <TAB> = 23;
       <AD01> = 24;
       <AD02> = 25;
       <AD03> = 26;
       <AD04> = 27;
       <AD05> = 28;
       <AD06> = 29;
       <AD07> = 30;
       <AD08> = 31;
       <AD09> = 32;
       <AD10> = 33;
       <AD11> = 34;
       <AD12> = 35;
       <BKSL> = 51;
       alias <AC12> = <BKSL>;
       <RTRN> = 36;
   
       // ...
   
   }
   

   <TAB> is the keycode name of the keycode 23.

5. You can find the list of all the keysymbols in the file /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h:

   /* ... */
   
   #define XK_5                             0x0035  /* U+0035 DIGIT FIVE */
   #define XK_6                             0x0036  /* U+0036 DIGIT SIX */
   #define XK_7                             0x0037  /* U+0037 DIGIT SEVEN */
   #define XK_8                             0x0038  /* U+0038 DIGIT EIGHT */
   #define XK_9                             0x0039  /* U+0039 DIGIT NINE */
   #define XK_colon                         0x003a  /* U+003A COLON */
   #define XK_semicolon                     0x003b  /* U+003B SEMICOLON */
   #define XK_less                          0x003c  /* U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN */
   #define XK_equal                         0x003d  /* U+003D EQUALS SIGN */
   #define XK_greater                       0x003e  /* U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN */
   #define XK_question                      0x003f  /* U+003F QUESTION MARK */
   #define XK_at                            0x0040  /* U+0040 COMMERCIAL AT */
   #define XK_A                             0x0041  /* U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A */
   #define XK_B                             0x0042  /* U+0042 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B */
   #define XK_C                             0x0043  /* U+0043 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C */
   #define XK_D                             0x0044  /* U+0044 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D */
   #define XK_E                             0x0045  /* U+0045 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E */
   
   /* ... */

6. Normally, with the 5 items above, you should be able to start making your own keyboard layout.

More reading

1. To understand the basics of XKB configuration, read XKB Config from x.org.
2. Find more information about keycodes, keysymbols and XKB in this basics part of the article An Unreliable Guide to XKB Configuration description from Doug Palmer.
3. If you want to modify or to make your own keyboard layout, have a look on X keyboard extension (wiki) part of the ArchWiki.
4. If you want a step by step explanation of XKB, you can read A simple humble but comprehensive guide to XKB from Damiano Venturin.

Contact

Do you have any question or suggestion? Please, feel free to:

• leave me a message on twitter @tonyaldon
• or to email me at [email protected].

Speaking with your computer always starts by typing characters. Speak clearly. Have a better life.