Slaviature — Debian/Linux (XKB)

Slaviature allows for quick input of characters from the Slavistic Phonetic Alphabet in Debian/Linux environments using XKB (X Keyboard Extension).

Installation

Navigate to the local folder where you cloned/download this repository, then copy the slav file from:

• linux/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/

to the system folder:

• /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/

You can do this using the following command (root privileges required):

sudo cp linux/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/slav \
    /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/

Usage with setxkbmap

1. Check your currently set keyboard layout:

   setxkbmap -query
   

   Example output for the default English (US) layout ‘us’:

   rules:      evdev
   model:      pc105
   layout:     us
   

   There might be two additional fields in the output: variant and options. In this case, they are not displayed because they are empty.

2. Enable Slaviature:

   setxkbmap slav
   

3. You can switch back to your previously set layout with:

   setxkbmap us
   

4. To make it easier to use both your default layout and Slaviature, you can configure both at once and assign a keyboard shortcut (e.g., Win + Space) for switching between them:

   setxkbmap -layout "us,slav" -option "grp:win_space_toggle"
   

   To see other available shortcuts, run:

   grep 'grp.*toggle' /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst
   

5. The keyboard layout toggle option using setxkbmap with the -option flag may not work correctly under GNOME. In such a case, add the following entry to the base.extras.xml and evdev.extras.xml files located in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/:

   <layout>
     <configItem popularity="exotic">
       <name>slav</name>
       <!-- Keyboard indicator for Slavistic Phonetic Alphabet layouts -->
       <shortDescription>slav</shortDescription>
       <description>Slavistic Phonetic Alphabet — Slawiatura</description>
     </configItem>
   </layout>
   

   Then configure the keyboard in “Settings” → “Region & Language” → “Input Sources”. To add the new layout, click the “+” button and select or search for “slav”.

   This repository also includes versions of these files with the configuration already added, so you can check how the entries have been inserted there.

Additional option

You can also use the changeLayout.sh script available in this repository. Simply place it, for example, in /usr/local/bin, grant it executable permissions, and assign it to a convenient keyboard shortcut in your system. This script allows you to quickly switch between predefined keyboard layouts without manually using setxkbmap or accessing system settings.