I am using Ubuntu 12.04. The keyboard layout is English US everywhere except for the Command Line where it works in English UK. Terminal also has English US. How do I change the default keyboard layout in Command Line to English US?

Also, I think it might be worth noting here, that when I had installed Ubuntu (dual boot with Windows 8. 1), I had initially set the language as English UK, but later changed it to English US from the system settings.

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7 Answers

Update 2017-04-13: This seems to have changed in recent Ubuntu versions and running sudo apt-get install console-common will try to remove other packages. So, for recent Ubuntu versions, use this instead (Tested in 17.04):

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

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The simplest way would indeed be as @steeldriver suggested to open a terminal and run this command:

sudo apt-get install console-common

That will install the console-common package and in the process allow you to chose your console layout. If that is already installed, use this to bring up the same wizard and set the layout:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-data

Tested on 13.10, and taken from here.

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Run this command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

This worked for me.

7

The above didn't work for me, but this did. From terminal enter the following command:

setxkbmap us

7

I have a console only (without X) Linux running inside a VirtualBox. Needed to change layout from US keyboard to a German one. This worked for me:

loadkeys de

To make it permanent:

localectl set-keymap de

6

I'm running 14.04 LTS with a standard US keyboard. My problem was that I had relied on the installer to choose US-Intl for me and it caused "dead keys" and improper formation of the " and ' keys (as well as others I don't know about, I'm sure).

After a lot of frustration and trial and error, I ran the "sudo apt-get install console-common" suggestion and it fixed my problem, but only while I was logged in.

When I logged out, restarted the server and back in, it failed.

It only took hold permanently when I executed the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" command and specified the generic US keyboard.

"setxkbmap" did not work for me.

It seems that (I don't KNOW) setxkbmap is obsolete in 14.04 LTS.

1

On Ubuntu/Debian you have /etc/default/keyboard config file which actually manages the keyboard layout on your distro. When you boot your system the /etc/default/keyboard file is read by setup scripts along with other config files. If you look at the output of /etc/default/keyboard file you can see my keybord layout is set to german de :

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE
# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.
XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="de"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

It is not good idea (like other config files) to directly change the attributes of /etc/default/keyboard file.

To change the layout or model of your keyboard always use following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Additional Information.

You should probably also change your locale!

Use locale -a to show all possible languages:

$ locale -a
C
C.UTF-8
de_AT.utf8
de_BE.utf8
de_CH.utf8
de_DE.utf8
de_LI.utf8
de_LU.utf8
en_AG
en_AG.utf8
...
POSIX

If your locale is not in the above list, then you have to generate it:

$ sudo locale-gen fr_FR.UTF-8
Generating locales... fr_FR.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.

The default settings are stored in /etc/default/locale:

You can either manually configure it, or use the tool:

update-locale LANG=de_DE.UTF-8

More details (german source).