[SOLVED] toggle between keyboard maps on-the-fly?

[bezdomny]

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I would like to be able to toggle back and forth between keyboard maps on-the-fly while within a particular application. Specifically, I would like to toggle between Cyrillic and Latin characters within a single IRC session.

As it is, I must toggle the keyboard to the desired map, *then* open desired application, and cannot toggle between maps while within that application. This situation simply won't work in chat with English-speaking Russian friends in IRC as I'm learning Russian language and sometimes can make myself understood in Russian and sometimes can't.

I have gone K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout and set both Russian and US-English keyboard maps. The keyboard-map toggle icon (represented by alternating US and Russian flag images) appears in the lower-right hand corner of the bottom panel.

When I go K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Country/Region & Language, I can effectively install only one language at a time. When I try to install an alternative language, only one alternative is available-- US English.

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong or not doing enough at K Menu>Control Center>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout?

Once again, I would like to be able to toggle back and forth between keyboard maps on-the-fly while within a particular application. I hope I'm making sense here.

I'm running KDE 3.5.

If more information is needed, please don't hesitate to ask.

[iwanabeguru]

i'm sure kde consists an applet for it too like as gnome.

I'm using gnome and i set it to the win key , so when i press the key the layout immediately changes and when the application regain the focus it use the new layout.

[bezdomny]

Spasibo, Iwanbeguru. Maybe I will have to switch to Gnome if I can't figure this out in KDE.

[bezdomny]

apt-get install kde-i18n-ru

Note the "ru" suffix for the desired language, in this case, Russian. Next:

apt-get install kkbswitch

Then, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to add the desired alternate keyboard map (in this case, Russian):

"XkbLayout" "us,ru"

as an option under Section "InputDevice".

Optionally, edit the same section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf to add a keyboard switch in addition to the mouseover switch at the panel applet:

"XkbOptions" "grp:switch,grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scrol l"

Thanks to the community at channel #kde on freenode IRC, and the community at kde-forum.org for the solution.