Keyboard fun

I bought a really mean keyboard. Yes, the keys are blank. I wanted to be able to switch keyboard layouts, and I find it weird to type on an AZERTY keybord with a QWERTY layout (and vice-versa). So, blank keys, no assumptions on the layout, no schizophrenia problem for me.

Now, about the layout switching. You can use a GUI application (e.g. fbxkb), but if you have a really bad ass keyboard, you don't want this. So here is a more geeky solution using Xorg configuration. I'm using version 1.9.2.

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf and edit the following lines in the keyboard section

        Option "XkbLayout" "fr,us"
        Option "XkbOptions" "grp:caps_toggle,grp_led:caps"

What it basically does is :
- load two layouts, fr and us
- use the Caps Lock key (seriously, who uses it ?) to change the layout
- toggle the Caps Lock LED when the keyboard layout switches (same behavious than with the normal Caps Lock key).

You can find more on these options here if you want to use different keys and LEDs. And by the way, if you find yourself "caps-locked", and unable to switch back (remember, the Caps Lock key changes the layout), try Shift-Caps_Lock...

Another way to make the keyboard even more bad ass is to add media keys, since it does not have any. I use the three keys you might have never used, Pause, Print Screen and Scroll Lock. Here is a quote of my Openbox config (in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml):

     <keybind key="S-Print">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>scrot -s -e 'mv $f ~/sshots'</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="S-Pause">
      <action name="execute">
        <execute>ncmpcpp toggle</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>

So Shift-Print allows me to take a screenshot, and Shift-Pause acts like a Play-Pause key.