The keyboard-configuration package ships /etc/default/keyboard
which can be used to set the following xkb items: model, layout,
variant, and options. Here’s an example:
XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="fr"
XKBVARIANT="oss"
XKBOPTIONS="compose:menu,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
Quick words about the options:
-
They are comma-separated.
-
The list of options and a short description for each can be found
in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst file (shipped by the
xkb-data package).
-
First option: compose:menu. This sets the menu key as the
Compose key. More information about it can be found in the
Compose manpage.
-
Second option: terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp. By default, the X server
is no longer killed through Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. This option
restores the old behaviour.
Two ways to change the configuration:
How does it propagate to X?
-
When HAL is used (that is: on GNU/kFreeBSD and GNU/Hurd), one has
to restart it: invoke-rc.d hal restart
-
When udev is used (on GNU/Linux, starting with squeeze), one has
to tell udev to reload input-related configuration:
udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change
(that can be found in keyboard-configuration’s README.Debian
file). Properties attached to the input devices are then updated,
and X uses those properties when it starts, as can be seen by
searching for xkb_ in the X log. Please note that trying
invoke-rc.d udev restart changes nothing, one has to use
udevadm. Properties can be inspected through:
/sbin/udevadm info --export-db