lyokha / g3kb-switch

CLI keyboard layout switcher for Gnome Shell

g3kb-switch

This is a CLI keyboard layout switcher for Gnome 3 and 4x. It is not based on the X interface but rather implements direct D-Bus messaging with the Gnome Shell.

Installation

Install

You can directly install this program by:

In Arch Linux, this program can be got from AUR.

paru -S g3kb-switch

In Fedora.

sudo dnf install g3kb-switch

In Nix / NixOS, official repository have included it.

nix-env -iA nixos.g3kb-switch

You can just run this program without installing it to your OS by

nix run 'github#lyokha/g3kb-switch' -- --help

Prerequisites

Build requires glib-2.0, so you need to install the corresponding development package.

In Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev

In Fedora / RHEL / CentOS.

sudo dnf install glib2-devel

In Gentoo.

sudo emerge -av dev-libs/glib

Commands may differ in other Linux distributions.

Gnome 45 and newer

Build and install the switcher.

cmake -Bbuild
cmake --build build
sudo cmake --install build

In Gnome 41 and newer, the switcher will only work with G3kbSwitch Gnome Shell extension, because method org.gnome.Shell.Eval which was used in the original implementation of the switcher is now disabled for security reasons. Note that in Gnome 41 through 44 the extension differs from that which is required in Gnome 45, see build instructions for older Gnome versions in the next section.

You can use unsafe-mode-menu to toggle unsafe mode.

After installing the extension, restart Gnome Shell for changes to take effect.

It is wise to make sure that the extension is enabled and works correctly. To enable the extension, use program gnome-extensions-app or command-line program gnome-extensions.

$ gnome-extensions enable [e-mail]
$ gnome-extensions info [e-mail]
[e-mail]
  Name: G3kbSwitch
  Description: G3kbSwitch helper
  Path: /usr/local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[e-mail]
  URL: https://github.com/lyokha/g3kb-switch
  Version: 1
  State: ENABLED

A small smoke-test of the extension.

$ gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/g3kbswitch/G3kbSwitch --method org.g3kbswitch.G3kbSwitch.List
(true, '[{"key":"0","value":"ru"},{"key":"1","value":"us"}]')
$ gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/g3kbswitch/G3kbSwitch --method org.g3kbswitch.G3kbSwitch.Get
(true, '1')
$ gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/g3kbswitch/G3kbSwitch --method org.g3kbswitch.G3kbSwitch.Set 1
(true, '')

Older versions of Gnome (41 through 44)

Older versions of Gnome Shell require a different implementation of the extension. In this case, the cmake configuration step requires one extra option.

Build and install the switcher.

cmake -Bbuild -DG3KBSWITCH_WITH_LEGACY_GNOME_SHELL_EXTENSION=ON
cmake --build build
sudo cmake --install build

Even older versions of Gnome (3.x and 40)

Even older versions of Gnome Shell expose method org.gnome.Shell.Eval which means that the switcher can be built to work with this method rather than using the extension. In this case, the cmake configuration step requires one extra option.

Build and install the switcher.

cmake -Bbuild -DG3KBSWITCH_WITH_GNOME_SHELL_EXTENSION=OFF
cmake --build build
sudo cmake --install build

Package

After cmake --build build, run:

cd build
# generate *.deb for debian/ubuntu
cpack -G DEB
# generate *.rpm for redhat
cpack -G RPM

Usage

Usage: g3kb-switch [-p]      Show the current layout group
       g3kb-switch -l        Show available layout groups
       g3kb-switch -n        Switch to the next layout group
       g3kb-switch -s ARG    Switch to layout group ARG
       g3kb-switch -h        Show this message and exit
       g3kb-switch -v        Show the program version and exit

Integration with vim-xkbswitch

Basically, put in .vimrc lines

let g:XkbSwitchEnabled = 1
let g:XkbSwitchLib = '/usr/local/lib64/libg3kbswitch.so'

Variable g:XkbSwitchLib must contain the actual path to the installed library. The path can be found with pkg-config.

$ pkg-config g3kb-switch --variable libpath
/usr/local/lib64/libg3kbswitch.so

Notice that setting this variable is optional because vim-xkbswitch tries its best to autodetect the path.

See details about configuration rules for vim-xkbswitch here.