How to change keyboard layout in gnome 3 from command line

Question

I am using gnome 3.22.1 but problem exists since 3.18.

Before that (don't remember the exact version) I was able to switch keyboard layout using xkb-witch, simple application that uses X.org bindings under the hood.

After 3.18 if you run xkb-switch, the keyboard layout won't be switched in gnome. Further investigation have shown that layout switching is working, but for a very short amount of time.

If you run this script:

for i in $(seq 1000); do
  lang=$(xkb-switch -s ru; xkb-switch);
  if [[ "$lang" == "ru" ]]; then
    echo $lang;
  fi;
done

You will get from 3 to 20 "successfull" layout switchings, depending on how lucky you are.

After googling this problem I the following advice:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources current 0

The setting is being changed, but the layout stays the same.

I have found one "hacky" method to change the layout:

setxkbmap us,ru
setxkbmap ru,us

but the gnome shell isn't aware of that change, and shows wrong language in layout indicator.

I've posted about this problem (sorry, not enough reputation, https ://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1657582 https ://github.com/ierton/xkb-switch/issues/15), but had no luck getting any good answers.

And at this point I'm stuck. I'm not skilled enough to identify the problem in gnome shell code. I'm not even sure it is it's(gnome shell's) problem.

What I want is a gnome-aware way to switch keyboard layout from terminal. Can someone point me in the right direction? Should I file this as a bug (especially the fact that keyboard layout cannot be changed through gsettings)?

Answer 1

Since gnome-shell exposes a JS eval interface on DBus which has access to all variables, the feat is possible with the following command:

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /org/gnome/Shell \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Eval \
 "imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager().inputSources[0].activate()"

Which will activate 0th layout, and so forth. It is trivial to assign these commands to, say, underutilized 無変換 and 変換 on your Japanese keyboard.

Credit.

---

And this is how to switch to last used input method (from comments):

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/gnome/Shell \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Eval "imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager()._mruSources[1].activate()"

Answer 2

If you are using IBus as your input method (which is a likely default), you can change your input using the ibus command:

# Set the layout to US English
ibus engine xkb:us::eng
# Set the input method to Japanese Mozc IME
ibus engine mozc-jp
# Set the layout to Russian
ibus engine xkb:ru::rus

You can see all available layouts with the ibus list-engine command.

It must be noted this approach does not change the language indicator, although it works reliably otherwise.

Answer 3

You can set up and switch to an input method on the command line even if you have not previously set up that input method with the mouse:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources "[('xkb', 'ru')]"

For Dvorak, use us+dvorak (or gb+dvorak if you're in the UK, or whatever).

Answer 4

Using gsettings.

Setting org.gnome.desktop.input-sources.sources to the null list, "[]", allows you to use the X server keyboard configuration without gnome-shell trying to configure it, so you could be able to do as before.

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources '[]'

Answer 5

I think you should try sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Answer 6

I did it this way. It worked with gnome-shell 3.36.9-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 and 42.0-2ubuntu1. If it doesn't work on your machine try increasing the sleep time.

chKeyboard(){
  kbd=$1 # de, us
  echo "Changing to $kbd keymap."
  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources "[('xkb', '$kbd')]"
  sleep 0.2 # small sleep time to wait for the switch.
  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources "[('xkb', 'de'), ('xkb', 'us')]"
}