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I am using Ubuntu 12.04. The keyboard layout is English US everywhere except for the Command Line where it works in English UK. Terminal also has English US. How do I change the default keyboard layout in Command Line to English US?

Also, I think it might be worth noting here, that when I had installed Ubuntu (dual boot with Windows 8. 1), I had initially set the language as English UK, but later changed it to English US from the system settings.

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  • 4
    What exactly is the "Command Line" as opposed to the terminal? Do you mean a virtual console (tty)?
    – terdon
    Mar 16, 2014 at 4:22
  • CTRL + ALT + F2 brings up the Command Line
    – Evelyn
    Mar 16, 2014 at 12:00
  • lang=en_US.UTF-8
    – Evelyn
    Mar 16, 2014 at 22:06
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    @terdon I think you second guessed yourself, Ctrl+Alt+F2 should indeed be a virtual terminal (the 'Run Dialog' is plain Alt+F2). I'm not sure if console-setup is installed by default, but perhaps the OP should try sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup?
    – steeldriver
    Mar 17, 2014 at 2:03
  • @steeldriver you are absolutely correct, I did not notice the Ctrl! Thanks, that makes this answerable!
    – terdon
    Mar 17, 2014 at 2:07

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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Update 2017-04-13: This seems to have changed in recent Ubuntu versions and running sudo apt-get install console-common will try to remove other packages. So, for recent Ubuntu versions, use this instead (Tested in 17.04):

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

The simplest way would indeed be as @steeldriver suggested to open a terminal and run this command:

sudo apt-get install console-common

That will install the console-common package and in the process allow you to chose your console layout. If that is already installed, use this to bring up the same wizard and set the layout:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-data

Tested on 13.10, and taken from here.

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    Using Ubutnu 14.04 I was able to set the keyboard on a text-console. But after a reboot it would be reset to the previous settings. Only after issuing a sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configurationI was able to set it permanently.
    – MadMike
    Oct 5, 2015 at 20:59
  • Seems like a bit of kludge to do something so seemingly simple - but hey, it worked on a Raspberry PI (running raspbian), so cool, thanks.
    – demaniak
    Sep 20, 2016 at 12:57
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    This doesn't work anymore with 16.04. Installing console-common wants to remove packages cryptsetup, plymouth, lightdm, and some others. dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration does work however.
    – Olaf Dietsche
    Oct 3, 2016 at 15:43
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    Goddamn it. After I ran this command and reboot, it stuck at the purple blank screen. Turns out this command also removed plymouth and unity. @OlafDietsche is right!
    – zeng_overflow
    Apr 4, 2017 at 17:05
  • > sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration This worked for me.
    – josephdpurcell
    Aug 30, 2019 at 0:22
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The above didn't work for me, but this did. From terminal enter the following command:

setxkbmap us
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  • This worked for me when using Chrome Remote Desktop to Mint even though the keyword layout is correct when logged in normally.
    – zzapper
    Jan 11, 2017 at 17:42
  • 2018 - working on Ubuntu 11.x
    – AK_
    Jan 21, 2018 at 19:47
  • and me wanting to go the other way (mint) setxkbmap gb
    – zzapper
    May 7, 2019 at 16:17
  • setxkbmap working on arch (loadkeys not)
    – hrvoj3e
    Jun 5, 2019 at 11:19
  • Works on LUbuntu 20_04
    – Timo
    Jul 8, 2020 at 18:00
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Run this command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

This worked for me.

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    I needed to reboot so that it takes effect, could you mention it in the answer? Cheers
    – Augustin Riedinger
    Jan 4, 2018 at 16:50
  • @AugustinRiedinger I didn't have to reboot to get that into effect.
    – defiant
    Apr 5, 2018 at 8:45
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    No reboot is required.
    – Miguel Ortiz
    Nov 20, 2018 at 14:02
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    Yes, running 16.04 (Thinkpad T430) and sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration worked a treat for me. Did not have to reboot just chose Generic 105 Int Keyboard and UK layout to recover my Keyboard after it had mysteriously change to US layout... Thanks
    – Dig
    Feb 27, 2020 at 14:48
  • I had to logout and back in to have it taking effect. [i3wm]
    – Zheng Qu
    Nov 10, 2020 at 12:31
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I have a console only (without X) Linux running inside a VirtualBox. Needed to change layout from US keyboard to a German one. I used loadkeys (load keyboard translation tables by kbd package):

loadkeys de

To make it permanent use systemd's localectl:

localectl set-keymap de

From manual:

set-keymap MAP [TOGGLEMAP]
Set the system keyboard mapping for the console and X11. This takes a mapping name (such as "de" or "us"), and possibly a second one to define a toggle keyboard mapping. Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting is also applied as the default system keyboard mapping of X11, after converting it to the closest matching X11 keyboard mapping. Use list-keymaps for a list of available keyboard mappings (see below).

See also

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    Thanks to you I found the solution for me, running my server in VNC. Your command changes it temporarily. To make it permanent I used localectl set-keymap de.
    – Alex
    Apr 11, 2017 at 14:26
  • Thanks. This works on a fresh server 16.04 install out of the box. The above setxkbmap solution requires to install some X11 utils, which IMHO did not seem the right thing to do on a server.
    – CatMan
    May 9, 2018 at 17:38
  • For Spanish use: loadkeys es
    – Lorenzo Lerate
    Aug 4, 2018 at 13:02
  • @Alex, Command not found
    – Black
    Oct 4, 2019 at 11:37
  • I am on LUbuntu 20?04. Does not work, do I have to reload the terminal or restart pc
    – Timo
    Jul 8, 2020 at 17:57
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I'm running 14.04 LTS with a standard US keyboard. My problem was that I had relied on the installer to choose US-Intl for me and it caused "dead keys" and improper formation of the " and ' keys (as well as others I don't know about, I'm sure).

After a lot of frustration and trial and error, I ran the "sudo apt-get install console-common" suggestion and it fixed my problem, but only while I was logged in.

When I logged out, restarted the server and back in, it failed.

It only took hold permanently when I executed the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" command and specified the generic US keyboard.

"setxkbmap" did not work for me.

It seems that (I don't KNOW) setxkbmap is obsolete in 14.04 LTS.

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  • setxkbmap gb worked for me just now in 16.04.01 LTS
    – Mike
    Sep 30, 2016 at 10:49
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On Ubuntu/Debian you have /etc/default/keyboard config file which actually manages the keyboard layout on your distro. When you boot your system the /etc/default/keyboard file is read by setup scripts along with other config files. If you look at the output of /etc/default/keyboard file you can see my keybord layout is set to german de :

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="de"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

It is not good idea (like other config files) to directly change the attributes of /etc/default/keyboard file.

To change the layout or model of your keyboard always use following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
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Additional Information.

You should probably also change your locale!

Use locale -a to show all possible languages:

$ locale -a
C
C.UTF-8
de_AT.utf8
de_BE.utf8
de_CH.utf8
de_DE.utf8
de_LI.utf8
de_LU.utf8
en_AG
en_AG.utf8
...
POSIX

If your locale is not in the above list, then you have to generate it:

$ sudo locale-gen fr_FR.UTF-8
Generating locales...
  fr_FR.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.

The default settings are stored in /etc/default/locale:

You can either manually configure it, or use the tool:

update-locale LANG=de_DE.UTF-8

More details (german source).

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  • This does not answer the OP. Locale and keyboard are quite unrelated.
    – Patrizio Bertoni
    Jun 22, 2022 at 12:14

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