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Minimus Heximus
Asked: 2013-08-27 00:33:07 +0800 CST

Two keyboards two language layouts

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I want to connect two keyboard sets to my computer. Is it possible to set each for a specific language. So that there's no need to change language each time.

For example:

  • keyboard 1 types russian

  • keyboard 2 types english

keyboard

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Using xinput and setxkbmap utilities, you can set from terminal so that each keyboard to have a different layout.

    First, using xinput -list | grep key command, you have to find the device ID of each keyboard. Here s an example (my case):

    $ xinput -list | grep key
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ 2.4GHz 2way RF Receiver                   id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HP Webcam                                 id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HP WMI hotkeys                            id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                            id=16   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                            id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)]

    And second, using setxkbmap -device <key_ID> -layout <layout_name>, set the layout which you wish for each keyboard. An example (for my keyboards):

    setxkbmap -device 3 -layout ro    #My master keyboard is set to Romanian layout
setxkbmap -device 10 -layout us   #The keyboard with id=10 is set to English (US) layout
setxkbmap -device 16 -layout ru   #The keyboard with id=16 is set to EFor Russian layout
    • 22

  2. Slightly off-topic, but if you additionally use the -variant option, you can type dvorak on one keyboard and workman or qwerty or any other layout on the other keyboard.

    setxkbmap -verbose -device 17 -layout us -variant dvorak

    Pair programming on steroids!

    • 7