French-Canadian Keyboard & keyboard switching

Fri May 1 13:57:45 UTC 2009

Boris Samorodov wrote:
> On Fri, 01 May 2009 09:11:02 -0400 PJ wrote:
>   
>> Boris Samorodov wrote:
>>     
>>> On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:04:34 -0400 PJ wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Tijl Coosemans wrote:
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> On Wednesday 29 April 2009 15:20:34 PJ wrote:
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Cool. Then I can ask some questions regarding all of this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> rc.conf: (snipped to show the relevant entries)
>>>>>> font8x16="iso15-8x16"
>>>>>> font8x14="iso15-8x14"
>>>>>> font8x8="iso15-8x8"
>>>>>> allscreens_flags="VGA_80x60 cyan"
>>>>>> rpcbind_enable="YES"
>>>>>> mountd_flags="-r"
>>>>>> nfs_client_enable="YES"
>>>>>> nfs_client_flags="-n 4"
>>>>>> samba_enable="YES"
>>>>>> cupsd_enable="YES"
>>>>>> apache22_enable="YES"
>>>>>> postgresql_enable="YES"
>>>>>> mysql_enable="YES"
>>>>>> webmin_enable="YES"
>>>>>> #keymap=fr_CA.iso.acc.kbd
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Question:
>>>>>> 1. the font entries? The /usr/share/syscons/fonts/ entry has suffixes
>>>>>> of .fnt - ???
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> Your font and keymap settings are ok. The extensions can be omitted.
>>>>> See the EXAMPLES sections in vidcontrol(1) and kbdcontrol(1).
>>>>>
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>>>> 2. the keymap is commented out because, although it gives me the
>>>>>> fr_CA keyboard, it also uses French messages which are a bit tortured
>>>>>> (French courtly affectations in the language are quaint but also make
>>>>>> for long and convoluted terminology - notice that a text translated
>>>>>> to French is always longer). K.I.S.S.
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> Keyboard settings shouldn't affect message localisation. Do you set
>>>>> the environment variable LANG in ~/.login_conf or in a shell startup
>>>>> script (.profile or .cshrc or other depending on the shell)? If so,
>>>>> set it to en_CA.ISO8859-15 or something. From q5 below I think you've
>>>>> currently set it to fr_CA.utf-8.
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>> No answer. Which locale do you use?
>>>   
>>>       
>> default us
>>     
>>>   
>>>       
>>>>>> xorg.conf: (snip for relevant)
>>>>>> Section "ServerLayout"
>>>>>> Identifier "X.org Configured"
>>>>>> Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
>>>>>> InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
>>>>>> InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
>>>>>> Option "AllowEmptyInput" "off"
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>> Seems that you use new X stuff. X11@ and gnome@ maillist archieves may
>>> give you some additional information.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>>>> EndSection
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Section "Files"
>>>>>> ModulePath "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
>>>>>> FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>> Unless I add cyrillic fonts, I'm not able to see cyrillic
>>> letters at xterm for my utf-8 locale.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>>>> FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
>>>>>> FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
>>>>>> FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
>>>>>> FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
>>>>>> FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
>>>>>> EndSection
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Section "Module"
>>>>>> Load "extmod"
>>>>>> Load "record"
>>>>>> Load "dbe"
>>>>>> Load "glx"
>>>>>> Load "GLcore"
>>>>>> Load "xtrap"
>>>>>> Load "dri"
>>>>>> Load "freetype"
>>>>>> EndSection
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Section "InputDevice"
>>>>>> Identifier "Keyboard0"
>>>>>> Driver "kbd"
>>>>>> Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> This might have to be pc105, but it probably doesn't matter.
>>>>>
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Option "XkbLayout" "us,ca"
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#QWERTY
>>>>>           
>
> [2]
>
>   
>>>>> If you have Canadian Multilingual Standard, this option needs to be set
>>>>> to "ca(multi)". If you have Canadian French, set it to "ca" or
>>>>> "ca(fr)".
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> This does not set it to the Canadian French; nor can I find anything
>>>> that does... only my lame setup works using the French azerty (which is
>>>> rather a pain because it involves complicated finger moves to get the
>>>> accented characters - I'm familiar with it and can use it; it's just a pita.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Phil, you didn't say which keyboard do you use and which options you
>>> have tried.
>>>
>>> Anyway, you may look at /usr/local/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst  [1]
>>> for options that can be used at xorg.conf for keyboards.
>>>
>>> And you may be interested in looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
>>> There are many useful diagnistics at this file.
>>>
>>>       
>>>>>> Option "XkbOptions" "grp:toggle"
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> If you don't need layout switching just delete this.
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> I guess I wasn't clear. Toggling was meant to mean switching back and
>>>> forth; switching - just once. I would like to use switching but it seems
>>>> to only work one way. Can't switch back. rtAlt switches from us to the
>>>> ca (which oddly seems to mean French, but nothing to do with Canadian or
>>>> French Canadian. Only fluxbox brings it back and then rtAlt no longer
>>>> works. Weird.
>>>> Any idea where the documentation is for this?
>>>> The man page is rather foggy and has no mention of XkbOptions or
>>>> XkbLayout or anything about "grp:toggle"
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Looking at [1] should help.
>>>
>>>
>>> HTH & WBR
>>>   
>>>       
>> Hi, Boris,
>> Thanks much for your input. I looked at all the possibilities, like the
>> profile, login.conf files, logs, google and have finally configured all
>> as I like. Everything works fine...
>> EXCEPT - it is impossible to install a French-Canadian keyboard/keymap
>> (without creating one - and I'm not about to get into that) on xorg
>> (with fluxbox as wm)
>> As I just responded to Tijl Goosemans, the true French Canadian keyboard
>> produces the most common accented characters with one keystroke; the
>> French or old Fr-Canadian uses 2 keystrokes. I can assure you because I
>>     
>
> Does that mead that your keyboard is not shown at wiki [2]?
>
>   
>> am typing on that keyboard right now. I switch between us & fr_ca with
>> ShiftAlt. the key to the right of the p/P key is used to create the
>> circumfex (lowercase) in conjunction with a vowel or umlaut (uppercase).
>>     
>
> Did you look at [1]? There are some tree variants for canadian
> multilingual keyboards: multix, multi, multi-2gr. May be this
> may help you.
>
>   
>> In Xorg, the toggle/switching is set with Option "XkbOptions"
>> "grp:alt_shift_toggle" or just alt or shift, I think. Also you can list
>> several languages, like "us,ru,es,fr" and switch from one to the next
>> (haven't tried, but I think it works); and "CoreKeyboard" must have a
>> boolean option set - either yes or no - "yes" works for me. I suppose
>> you could enter true/false, but I haven't tried. No need.
>>     
>
> BTW, may be another mail list (x11@) may give you some more
> experienced eyes to help you.
>
>
> WBR
>   
The physical keyboard is a Compaq, identical layout of the Logitech I am
using on this XP. This one is set to switch beween us & canadian multi.
But the ca(multi) setting does not work either alone or with the us for
switching. The accent keys are dead. Maybe the option for the keys
should be set to nodeadkeys.
But this is not worth pursuing as I am spending too much time on this as
is. I have things under control, it just seems strange that the
ca(multi) cannot be installed. Could be fluxbox? Oh well.
Oh, BTW, I have not been able to find any source of specific information
about all the allowed configuration options for the xorg keyboard setup.
One would think that the man page would have it all, but nope.

-- 
Hervé Kempf: "Pour sauver la planète, sortez du capitalisme."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Phil Jourdan --- pj at ptahhotep.com
   http://www.ptahhotep.com
   http://www.chiccantine.com/andypantry.php