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After some experiments to enable Alt+Shift for layout switching on freshly installed Ubuntu Studio 15.04, the layout switch stopped to work at all. The language indicator changes if I switch by clicking it on the panel, but input is still in English.

How to troubleshoot the problem?

MORE INFO: Ubuntu Studio 15.04 uses Xfce 4.12 Desktop Environment. I was told to disable IBus, because it looks like it doesn't support modifier-only shortcuts like Alt+Shift (https://github.com/ibus/ibus/issues/1821). So I disabled IBus. In Xfce it is done through Settings -> Personal -> Language Support:

Language Support Menu in Xfce 4.12

However, I couldn't find Text Entry menu shown in @cl-netbox answer in Xfce. Only Keyboard Input Methods which proposes to launch IBus Daemon and exits if you don't agree:

Keyboard Input Methods in Xfce 4.12

So I am stuck with no way to use Russian language on my Ubuntu Studio. Does anybody know how to fix that?

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anatoly techtonik
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  • @cl-netbox, I tried this solution, but it didn't work. – anatoly techtonik Sep 02 '15 at 13:27
  • @cl-netbox updated question with more information why switching IBus off is not an option. – anatoly techtonik Sep 03 '15 at 06:01
  • I have no experience with U. Studio, but have some with iBus and all kind of input method config. on 14.04. Can you be more precise as to what "input still in English" really means ? Do you refer to your keyboard layout or to the default language support, for instance on my 14.04 Desktop Ubuntu, I can go from Zh to En to Es and back while retain whatever keyboard config I need. Please, clarify a bit your wording. – Cbhihe Sep 05 '15 at 18:04
  • @Cbhihe when I switch language I expect typed letters to be in that language, so it is all about keyboard layout. – anatoly techtonik Sep 05 '15 at 22:36
  • Between what 2+ keyboard layouts do you switch ? US_En and ... ? – Cbhihe Sep 06 '15 at 09:30
  • @Cbhihe, EN and RU for now. – anatoly techtonik Sep 06 '15 at 11:28
  • You undoubtedly know that already, but Romanian very much like for English, has a slew of kb layouts available. In the case of En, next to plain English (US) or plain English (UK), there are 10 other layouts. With the plain _Romanian_ kb layout, ASCII characters seem to have a key layout that coincides with that of English (US) on Ubuntu with Unity. Do you use something else, different from the plain Romanian kb layout in U. Studio ? Is it possible for you to visually check the kb layout for each available Romanian layout ? You might find overwhelming coincidence with US_En. – Cbhihe Sep 06 '15 at 13:14
  • @Cbhihe wow, thanks for the hint. It didn't help directly, but I was just checking once more where to configure layouts and I found them in **Settings -> Hardware -> Keyboard -> Layout**. The list was empty, and adding *Russian (typewriter)* seems to be fixed it. I can also use Alt+Shift shortcut. The only missing part is icon on the panel. – anatoly techtonik Sep 06 '15 at 17:21
  • It appears that `Russian (typewriter)` is not exactly what is needed, but at least I know have Russian letters types. Trying other layouts right now.. EDIT: Ok. I just had to select the parent category. Everything is cool. If you can add screens of that layout configuration window, I will accept it as an answer. – anatoly techtonik Sep 06 '15 at 17:25
  • Glad I could help, even indirectly. It did look to me like you were missing some layout component and in fact I was going to suggest that next. Never mind the layout screens as I do not have a boot with U. Studio handy. Anyway you could redact the solution with the layout screens yrself and mark it as an answer so others may avail yr inquiries. Good luck for all ! – Cbhihe Sep 06 '15 at 19:29

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I need to give credits to @cl-netbox and @Cbhihe for helping me to find the right way. So after disabling IBus language switching thing stopped to work at all, and Settings -> Other -> Keyboard Input Methods menu provided a wrong way to search for layout switching.

The proper place to configure layout with disabled IBus appeared to be in Settings -> Hardware -> Keyboard -> Layout:

Settings -> Hardware -> Keyboard

After opening the window and switching to Layout tab I had to turn off "Use system defaults" flag and then configure the window:

Layout

The list was empty, and adding Russian fixed it. The trick was to select the category to get all keys right, and not one of its children:

Choosing right Russian language

Now I can also use Alt+Shift shortcut. The only missing part is language indicator on the panel, which is a subject of another question.

anatoly techtonik
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  • Sadly this does not work on Trusty 14.04 LTS, as the `Keyboard`-`Layout`-Tab is not available there – Tino Dec 26 '15 at 11:54