Keyboard Layouts & Localization

Graphical route

  • Keyboard layout: System Settings → Keyboard → Layouts → Add. Set per-window or global switching, compose key options included.

  • System language: System Settings → Language → install/add languages; re-login applies.

  • Formats (dates, numbers): same panel, independent of display language.

Terminal route

localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts | grep -i de   # find code
sudo localectl set-x11-keymap de                 # console + X11 together
localectl status

sudo localectl set-locale de_DE.UTF-8           # system language
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Berlin
timedatectl                                      # verify NTP sync too

New locales need generation first:

sudo sed -i 's/^#de_DE.UTF-8/de_DE.UTF-8/' /etc/locale.gen
sudo locale-gen

Dead keys, compose & accents

Enable Compose key in Settings → Keyboard → Compose. Then <Compose> + ' + e = é. Full tables: compose file docs.

Switching layouts mid-session

Add two layouts in the applet; default shortcut is Super+Space. Terminal-only sessions honor loadkeys de (console) separately.

Time drift with dual-boot

Hours off by your UTC offset? Classic Windows/localtime clash — fix in Dual-Boot guide §5.