====== X Keymapping ======

On occasions I found that after ''emerge -uDN @world'' that my keymappings under X had gone awry and reverted to US, despite no changes to my ''/etc/X11/xorg.conf''.  Thing were fine under a TTY, but not under X.

** UPDATE ** This page is now pretty much redundant, HAL has been purged from the Gentoo Portage tree and udev is used (although as of writing it has been [[http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/139tyy/udev_has_been_forked_by_gentoo/|forked]]).

===== Why? =====

These problems arise as a consequence of switching between [[http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal|HAL]] and [[http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html|udev]] for hardware detection.  I first encountered the problem when I upgraded to a version of [[wp>Xorg|Xorg]] ''>1.5'' as input devices such as keyboard, mouse and touchpads are now controled by  [[http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal|HAL]] and [[http://xorg.freedesktop.org/evdev]].  However, HAL is now effectively dead (unmaintained, no updates) and as such is marked for removal from Gentoo, so now control is now under [[http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html|udev]]/[[http://xorg.freedesktop.org/evdev]]

===== Fixing keyboard maps under HAL =====

As control is now under ''sys-apps/hal'' ([[http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/hal|HAL]]) via [[http://xorg.freedesktop.org/evdev]] the configurations now reside in ''/usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/*''.  You //could// edit these but you would have to be careful when updating packages and ensure you do not wipe them out.  The alternative is to use a local directory structure and place the changes under ''/etc/hal/fdi/policy/*''.

For the keyboard map you want to have the following file ''/etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-x11-input.fdi'' reflect your heyboards key map.

<code>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
    <!-- Mouse configuration -->
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.mouse">
      <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">evdev</merge>
    </match>

    <!-- Keyboard configuration -->
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keymap">
      <append key="info.callouts.add" type="strlist">hal-setup-keymap</append>
    </match>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keys">
      <merge key="input.xkb.model" type="string">evdev</merge>
      <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">evdev</merge>
      <merge key="input.xkb.layout" type="string">gb</merge>
      <append key="input.xkb.options" type="strlist">compose:menu</append>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>
</code>

==== Synaptics TouchPad ====

If you happen to have a Synaptics Touch Pad (common on many laptops) you will need the file ''/etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi''

<code>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
      <match key="info.product" contains="Synaptics TouchPad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">on</merge>
   <!-- Tapping -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">2</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">3</merge>
   <!-- Scrolling up/down -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizEdgeScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <!-- Corner clicks -->
        <merge key="input.x11_options.RBCornerButton" type="string">2</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.RTCornerButton" type="string">3</merge>
      </match>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo> 
</code>

===== Fixing keyboard maps under udev =====

This is the most likely situation you will be in (after all what is the point in installing and configuring dead packages?).  Under udev and evdev devices are semi-automatically detected, but a ''/etc/X11/xorg.conf'' file is required.  Within this file you need to define an ''InputClass'' for your keyboard and under this you specify the ''XkbLayout'' as shown

<code>
Section "InputClass"
   Identifier	     "Keyboard0"
   MatchIsKeyboard   "True"
   Driver	     "evdev"
   Option	     "XkbModel" "evdev"
   Option	     "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection 
</code>

==== Synaptics TouchPad ====

If you happen to have a Synaptics Touch Pad (common on many laptops) you will need an ''InputClass'' for this too...

<code>
Section "InputClass"
	Identifier	"Synaptics"
	MatchIsTouchpad "on"
	MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
	Driver 		"synaptics"
EndSection

</code>

{{tag>gentoo linux howto X}}