Hebrew FAQ

[Meir Kriheli]

Aharon Schkolnik wrote:
> On Tuesday 24 March 2009, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:
>> Aharon Schkolnik <aschkolnik at gmail.com> writes:
>>> Actually, I meant to ask about setting up Hebrew using xorg.conf,
>> Modern systems don't have xorg.conf - Xorg probes the system on
>> startup, generates the necessary parameters, and "just works". I have
>> 2 Fedora 10 computers with different video cards, etc. - neither has
>> an xorg.conf.
> 
> Yes, you're right, but if you want to set up Hebrew keyboard at the X level,  
> you need a xorg.conf file. That's how I have done it in the past.
> 

Not if you're using Xorg's input hotplugging, hal is responsible for
that, without the need for xorg.conf. Here's my
/etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymap.fdi:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <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.rules" type="string">xorg</merge>

      <!-- If we're using Linux, we use evdev by default (falling back to
           keyboard otherwise). -->
      <merge key="input.xkb.model" type="string">keyboard</merge>
      <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.kernel.name"
             string="Linux">
        <merge key="input.xkb.model" type="string">evdev</merge>
      </match>

      <merge key="input.xkb.layout" type="string">us,il</merge>
      <merge key="input.xkb.variant" type="string">,lyx</merge>
      <merge key="input.xkb.options"
type="string">grp:switch,grp:alt_shift_toggle</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

>> You can generate the file using Xorg --configure or sth of the kind,
>> and if you have it Xorg will use it. I did not feel the need.
> 
> I did that, but wasn't able to get the Hebrew keyboard stuff working.

Cheers
--
Meir Kriheli