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Kalamine

A text-based, cross-platform Keyboard Layout Maker.

Install

To install kalamine, all you need is a Python 3.8+ environment and pip:

# to install kalamine
python3 -m pip install --user kalamine

# to upgrade kalamine
python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade kalamine

# to uninstall kalamine
python3 -m pip uninstall --user kalamine

However, we recommend using pipx rather than pip as it provides pyenv containment, which is a much saner approach and is becoming mandatory on many operating systems (e.g. Arch Linux). It is even simpler from a user perspective:

# to install kalamine
pipx install kalamine

# to upgrade kalamine
pipx upgrade kalamine

# to uninstall kalamine
pipx uninstall kalamine

Arch Linux users may use the AUR package:

yay -S kalamine-git

Developer-specific installation instructions can be found in the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Building Distributable Layouts

Create a keyboard layout with kalamine new:

kalamine new layout.toml                  # basic layout
kalamine new layout.toml --altgr          # layout with an AltGr layer
kalamine new layout.toml --1dk            # layout with a custom dead key
kalamine new layout.toml --geometry ERGO  # apply an ortholinear geometry

Edit this layout with your preferred text editor:

  • the user guide is available at the end of the *.toml file
  • the layout can be rendered and emulated with kalamine watch (see next section)

Build your layout:

kalamine build layout.toml

Get all distributable keyboard drivers:

dist/
  ├─ layout.ahk            # Windows (user)
  ├─ layout.klc            # Windows (admin)
  ├─ layout.keylayout      # macOS
  ├─ layout.xkb_keymap     # Linux (user)
  ├─ layout.xkb_symbols    # Linux (root)
  ├─ layout.json           # web
  └─ layout.svg

You can also ask for a single target by specifying the file extension:

kalamine build layout.toml --out layout.xkb_symbols

Emulating Layouts

Your layout can be emulated in a browser — including dead keys and an AltGr layer, if any.

$ kalamine watch layout.toml
Server started: http://localhost:1664

Check your browser, type in the input area, test your layout. Changes on your TOML file are auto-detected and reloaded automatically.

watch.png

Press Ctrl-C when you’re done, and kalamine will write all platform-specific files.

Using Distributable Layouts

Windows (user): *.ahk

The keyboard layout appears in the notification area. It can be enabled/disabled by pressing both Alt keys.

You may also use Ahk2Exe to turn your *.ahk script into an executable file. The U32 Unicode 32-bit.bin setting seems to work fine.

Windows (admin): *.klc

Note: this applies only if you want to use the *.klc file. A better approach is to use wkalamine (see below).

  • get a keyboard layout installer: MSKLC (freeware) or KbdEdit (shareware);
  • load the *.klc file with it;
  • run this installer to generate a setup program;
  • run the setup program;
  • restart your session, even if Windows doesn’t ask you to.

The keyboard layout appears in the language bar.

Note: in some cases, custom dead keys may not be supported any more by MSKLC on Windows 10/11. KbdEdit works fine, but its installers are not signed. WKalamine works fine as well (see below) and its installers are signed.

Basic developer info available in Kalamine’s KLC documentation page.

macOS: *.keylayout

  • copy your *.keylayout file into:
    • either ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts for the current user only,
    • or /Library/Keyboard Layouts for all users;
  • restart your session.

The keyboard layout appears in the “Language and Text” preferences, “Input Methods” tab.

Linux (root): *.xkb_symbols

This is by far the simplest method to install a custom keyboard layout on Linux.

Recent versions of XKB allow one custom keyboard layout in root space:

sudo cp layout.xkb_symbols ${XKB_CONFIG_ROOT:-/usr/share/X11/xkb}/symbols/custom

Your keyboard layout will be listed as “Custom” in the keyboard settings. This works on both Wayland and X.Org. Depending on your system, you might have to relog to your session or to reboot X completely.

On X.Org you can also select your keyboard layout from the command line:

setxkbmap custom  # select your keyboard layout
setxkbmap us      # get back to QWERTY

On Wayland, this depends on your compositor. For Sway, tweak your keyboard input section like this:

input type:keyboard {
    xkb_layout "custom"
}

Linux (user): *.xkb_keymap

*.xkb_keymap keyboard descriptions can be applied in user-space. The main limitation is that the keyboard layout won’t show up in the keyboard settings.

On X.Org it is straight-forward with xkbcomp:

xkbcomp -w10 layout.xkb_keymap $DISPLAY

Again, setxkbmap can be used to get back to the standard us-qwerty layout on X.Org:

setxkbmap us

On Wayland, this depends on your compositor. For Sway, tweak your keyboard input section like this:

input type:keyboard {
    xkb_file /path/to/layout.xkb_keymap
}

WKalamine

wkalamine is a Windows-specific CLI tool to create MSKLC setup packages.

This is kind of a hack, but it provides an automatic way to build setup packages on Windows and more importantly, these setup packages overcome MSKLC’s limitations regarding chained dead keys and AltGr+Space combos.

It is done by generating the C layout file, and tricking MSKLC to use it by setting it as read-only before.

Make sure MSKLC is installed and build your installer:

wkalamine build layout.toml

and you should get a [layout]\setup.exe executable to install the layout.

Remember to log out and log back in to apply the changes.

XKalamine

xkalamine is a Linux-specific CLI tool for installing and managing keyboard layouts with XKB, so that they can be listed in the system’s keyboard preferences.

Wayland (user)

On most Wayland environments, keyboard layouts can be installed in user-space:

# Install a YAML/TOML keyboard layout into ~/.config/xkb
xkalamine install layout.toml

# Uninstall Kalamine layouts from ~/.config/xkb
xkalamine remove us/prog     # remove the kalamine 'prog' layout
xkalamine remove fr          # remove all kalamine layouts for French
xkalamine remove "*"         # remove all kalamine layouts

# List available keyboard layouts
xkalamine list               # list all kalamine layouts
xkalamine list fr            # list all kalamine layouts for French
xkalamine list us --all      # list all layouts for US English
xkalamine list --all         # list all layouts, ordered by locale

Once installed, layouts are selectable in the desktop environment’s keyboard preferences. On Sway, you can also select a layout like this:

input type:keyboard {
    xkb_layout "us"
    xkb_variant "prog"
}

Note: some desktops like KDE Plasma, despite using Wayland, do not support keyboards layouts in ~/.config:xkb out of the box. In such cases, using xkalamine as sudo is required, as described below.

X.Org (root)

On X.Org, a layout can be applied on the fly in user-space:

# Equivalent to `xkbcomp -w10 layout.xkb_keymap $DISPLAY`
xkalamine apply layout.toml

However, installing a layout so it can be selected in the keyboard preferences requires sudo privileges:

# Install a YAML/TOML keyboard layout into /usr/share/X11/xkb
sudo env "PATH=$PATH" xkalamine install layout.toml

# Uninstall Kalamine layouts from /usr/share/X11/xkb
sudo env "PATH=$PATH" xkalamine remove us/prog
sudo env "PATH=$PATH" xkalamine remove fr
sudo env "PATH=$PATH" xkalamine remove "*"

Once installed, you can apply a keyboard layout like this:

setxkbmap us -variant prog

Note that updating XKB will delete all layouts installed using sudo xkalamine install.

Sadly, it seems there’s no way to install keyboard layouts in ~/.config/xkb for X.Org. The system keyboard preferences will probably list user-space kayouts, but they won’t be usable on X.Org.

If you want custom keymaps on your machine, switch to Wayland (and/or fix any remaining issues preventing you from doing so) instead of hoping this will ever work on X.

—Peter Hutterer

Resources

XKB is a tricky piece of software. The following resources might be helpful if you want to dig in:

Alternative