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ElectRocnic
Asked: 2020-04-28 01:58:24 +0800 CST

Does Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa support the Compose-Key?

  • 772

I tried everything I could find in the following links:
How can I enable Compose key?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ComposeKey

However, I still could not get the compose key working on my freshly installed Ubuntu 20.04.

I use the english (US) keyboard layout, but I need to be able to type Umlauts with the compose key. In Ubuntu 18.04 and 16.04 it worked just fine and I mapped set and used the super key without any problems.

In 20.04 I tried different keys but none of them worked.

The output from gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources is:
xkb-options ['compose:rwin', 'eurosign:e', 'esperanto:qwerty'], however sudo vim /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-input-sources contains compose:ralt...

keyboard-layout shortcut-keys gnome-tweak-tool compose-key 20.04

3 Answers

  1. Gunnar's comment pointed me into the right direction.

    gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources shows the current active settings and therefore I was able to find out that I used the wrong key.

    Using the gnome-tweak-tools I could update the settings accordingly to the right-ctrl which finally worked.

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  2. Thanks to the previous answers, here is the method that worked for me:

    List keyboard settings:

    gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.input-sources

    Set the compose key:

    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources xkb-options "['compose:paus']"

    List possible values for compose key:

    grep "compose:" /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst
    • 4

  3. If you prefer to use the command line, see this answer. Worked like a charm for me on U20.04.

    If you prefer to use the GUI, and don't mind installing a package just for defining the compose key, see this answer.

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