LightDM GTK Greeter

change keyboard input method

Asked by Tim Wescott

Is it possible to change the keyboard input method of the greeter? I use a Dvorak keyboard, but out of courtesy to the lesser beings in my household I install Linux using Qwerty, then change the layout in my desktop.

It would be a convenience if I -- and the occasional users of this machine -- could switch between Dvorak and Qwerty when logging in.

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Andrew P. (kalgasnik) said : 		#1

You need to add layout indicator to panel to have ability to change layouts.
There are 2 ways to do it.

1. Latest greeter version have builtin layout indicator (~layout).
There are two versions of it: LightDM layouts API version and alternative implementation.
I'm recommend to use alternative implementation, just install greeter using this PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~kalgasnik/+archive/ubuntu/lightdm-gtk-greeter-libxklavier

/etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
[greeter]
…
# add "~layout" indicator to panel
indicators=[your indciators];~layout
…

Greeter uses system layouts settings. So you need to add dvorak layout to system layouts to use it at login screen.
You can use special GUI tools for it (keyboard/layouts settings -> system-wide or something similar) or you can modify "/etc/default/keyboard" file:

XKBLAYOUT=us,us
XKBVARIANT=,dvorak
XKBOPTIONS=grp:ctrl_shift_toggle

2. You can use "keyboard-indicator" with greeter.

/etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
[greeter]
…
# add "keyboard" indicator to panel
indicators=[your indciators];keyboard
…
+ read this question:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/328952/how-do-i-change-the-login-managers-keyboard-layout

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