Changing TTY keyboard layout on a server?

Question

I use 12.04 Server in command line mode (no X installed), and I would like to change the keyboard layout. How can I do this?

Solution 1

Please try the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-data

If it says you don't have the package, then install console-data with:

sudo apt-get install console-data

More about Locale Configuration: LocaleConf - Community Help Wiki

Solution 2

After trying sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-data, I found out that it doesn't work after a reboot.

However,

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

does work after reboot and also has more options.

More info here.

Solution 3

Try:

loadkeys es (Spanish)
loadkeys pt (Portuguese)
loadkeys br (Brazilian Portuguese)
loadkeys ch (Swiss German)

Solution 4

• Set US layout: setxkbmap us
• Set GB layout: setxkbmap gb

Solution 5

For me this did it

localectl set-keymap de-latin1

View more solutions

Comments

[Dan Hibbert]

Mike, would you consider changing the accepted answer? It looks like there is a much better answer now than the originally accepted answer.

[JonnyJD]

Like that other answer mentions: This does not carry over a reboot. (tested in 12.04.1 LTS)

[Tobias F. Meier]

A hint for people who want to change their keyboard layout during console install: Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add 'universe' to the listed URL. Otherwise it can't find consol-data

[CMCDragonkai]

How do I find out what kind of keyboard I have? It's the Windows 8 Surface pro one. What's the US standard one?

[Clayton Dukes]

This is the correct answer, not the other one.

[RCF]

You might want to edit your last line and use sudo instead of root, since root is not the recommended method for commands needing administrator priviledges.

[blkpws]

This commands only works for Ubuntu Desktop, not on Ubuntu Server.

[jocull]

I could not get loadkeys us to work, even with sudo. It was saying that the file "us" couldn't be found. This on my Raspberry Pi.

[lbo]

Older Ubuntu releases, such as Lucid Lynx (10.04), don't have the keyboard-configuration package. Göran's link has the correct answer for these: sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup If your cursor keys don't work as expected in the ncurses UI, try those on the numeric keypad.

[SaAtomic]

I believe this only works with a GUI. Also - the reboot is not really required, you can also set the variable in the current terminal by simply overwriting it. XKBLAYOUT="us"

[Andrea Turbiglio]

doesn't work on my Ubuntu 18.04, keyboard layout in the console remains the same

[RoBeaToZ]

loadkeys de for german keyboard layout worked for me, thx!

[Niko]

Worked for me in Ubuntu Server 20.04 with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ For some reason I had to be connected to the internet if I wanted the command to work properly and for the changes to stay active even after rebooting.

[ATorras]

It also works on Ubuntu 20 (focal)

[user3804598]

loadkeys ru worked for russian, ctrl + shift to toggle between english and russian