Artix Linux Forum

/etc/locale.conf contains:

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LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANG=el_GR.UTF-8 UTF-8

/etc/vconsole.conf is non-existent.

Anyway, I am not asking for how to put a shortcut to change language, I am confident I can achieve that.

>You can create vconsole.conf It is only a text file. It affects the text console only (ttys, not a virtual terminal like st).
What does it do?

Of course, localectl is missing, it's a part of systemd. But your problem can be solved without systemd, it's simple. There are two different parts: localization of tty (console) and localization of X11.

Localization of console in Artix is done by creating and editing /etc/vconsole.conf. You should add KEYMAP definition there. For example, here is my /etc/vconsole.conf:

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LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
KEYMAP="ruwin_alt_sh-UTF-8"
FONT="ter-v16b"
CONSOLEMAP=""

This allows me to switch between English and Russian keymaps by pressing Alt+Shift. Keymaps are stored in the /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty directory. There is a couple of Greek keymaps: gr and gr-pc.

Those are compressed text files, just look inside and read the commentary to learn how to switch between languages in each keymap, and then choose whichever you like.

Then, localization of X11. As already mentioned before, this can be done by executing setxkbmap. But this can be done automatically by Xorg during the startup. Just add the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf with something like that:

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Section "InputClass"
	Identifier     "MyPreciousKeyboard"
	MatchIsKeyboard "on"
	Option "XkbLayout" "us,ru"
	Option "XkbVariant" ","
	Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp,grp_led:scroll,numpad:microsoft"
EndSection

scroll lock keyboard indicator shows the current layout, numpad keys work as in Windows (you can use Alt/Ctrl/Shift + arrows/home/end/etc).

That depends on your DE. I'm using no DE, and have my custom build of dwm which includes the call to setxkbmap on startup, approximately this:

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setxkbmap -layout us,rs -option grp:alt_shift_toggle

This allows me to switch input language in X.Org with left Alt+Shift.

It doesn't work by pressing shift+alt though

I am confused by xorg.conf.d
It is a directory of sorts, and the only thing under xorg.conf.d is "40-libinput.conf", I don't see 10-keyboard.conf

Scroll lock doesn't show current layout

idk what you mean by numpad functionality

@strajder that script worked, but I couldn't make an initscript (I am a newbie), so I ended up using the above X11 way and it works on startup
Out of curiosity, since I already have it working by the xorg.conf.d, how have you set up your initscript/openrcservice?

In gr keymap, switching to Greek works by pressing left-shift-alt, as described in the comment. I've just tested, it works for me. Right alt and shift don't work.
Just create this file. It's a common way to manage configs in Linux. Say, you have some config file whatever.conf, and often there is a directory whatever.conf.d. You can put there your own config files, say whatever.conf.d/myown.conf. The format of these files is the same as of the original file. The reason for this is, the default config files can be replaced during upgrades, but these user-defined files aren't. Thus you can redefine default options and keep your changed config without reediting the default config file after it changes. Also, you can create several such files and keep various groups of options in different files, which makes your user configuration modular.
With option grp_led:scroll, the scroll lock led will show you the current layout. In my case, when the scroll lock led is off, it's English layout, when it's on, it's Russian layout. In some keymaps, caps lock is used to indicate layout (and also capslock button to switch between layouts), but I find this inconvenient.
I usually turn NumLock off and use the numpad for Ins/PgUp/Home/etc. But the default Linux keyboard behaviour is when you press say Ctrl+Ins on numpad or Shift+Ins on numpad or whatever, it doesn't work as Ctrl+Ins, but instead types some weird keycode. At least, it used to work in such a way a while ago. By setting the option numpad:microsoft, you can use Ctrl+Ins and other combinations with numpad as Ctrl+ generic Ins etc.

Those additional options for setxkbmap are not well documented, so I was very glad to find this config setting, I don't remember yet where I stumbled upon it. I just keep this setting in my config since then.

UPD. Which init system do you actually use? In the first post, you mentioned runit, but then you write about openrc init scripts. The thing is, console keyboard configuration works differently for runit and openrc. In openrc, /etc/vconsole.conf has no effect, you should edit /etc/conf.d/consolefont and /etc/conf.d/keymap instead. Also, you must add the consolefont service to runlevel boot in order to adjust your console font during startup.