X Keyboard Configuration Database
The non-arch keyboard configuration database for X Window. The goal is to provide the consistent, well-structured, frequently released open source of X keyboard configuration data for X Window System implementations (free, open source and commercial). The project is targeted to XKB-based systems.
What is it for?
There are many X Window implementations which have very poor support for non-standard keyboards, national layouts and options.
Open Source X Window System implementations (xfree86, x.org) currently have non-synchronized XKB configuration databases: the bugs fixed in one repository are not reflected in the other, new configuration elements are added (in best case) separately and independently to both CVS trees - but usually only one tree gets them. Also, these implementations contain unbalanced and unstructured layout trees (very often one country/language have several layouts, each with its own set of variants).
Commercial X Window System implementations cannot support large variety of national layouts - usually, because of lack of resources. So users from "exotic" countries feel offended and frustrated - their environments are not complete.
The solution which would guarantee quality support for the keyboard configuration data is to have single repository which would serve as meta-project for X servers and OS distributions. X Keyboard Configuration Database is trying to be the one.
License
Development
For details on mailing lists, bug reporting, code repositories, and submission rules, see here
Releases
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.1.tar.gz">0.1</a> - 25 May 2004, first version. Only single-group layouts are included (tested for compatibility with the multiple layouts feature). Each language/country has no more than one layout and any number of variants.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.2.tar.gz">0.2</a> - 12 Jun 2004, second version. HOWTO.transition is added, xkbcomp symlink is supported, Maori layout is added, small fix for Brasilian layout is applied.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.3.tar.gz">0.3</a> - 23 Jul 2004, HEAVILY restructured layout names, compatibility rules are introduced, intltool problem resolved (sorry, with warnings).
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/release/xkeyboard-config-0.4.tar.gz">0.4</a> - 28 Sep 2004, A lot of fixes. More univeral EURO handling. New urdu layout. Improved handling for indicators.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.5.tar.gz">0.5</a> - 02 Mar 2005, New layouts/models/options. Updated translations. Group names synchronization.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.6.tar.gz">0.6</a> - August 2005, Many improvements.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.7.tar.bz2">0.7</a> - December 2005, New layouts/models/options. Reogranized symbols/inet.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.8.tar.bz2">0.8</a> - March 2006, New layouts, fixes.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.9.tar.bz2">0.9</a> - October 2006, New layouts, fixes.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.0.tar.bz2">1.0</a> - July 2007, Around 70 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.1.tar.bz2">1.1</a> - September 2007, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. First time-based release.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.2.tar.bz2">1.2</a> - January 2008, Around 40 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Updated translation schema.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.3.tar.bz2">1.3</a> - May 2008, Around 40 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Dropped old rulesets sgi and sun. Added a lot of metadata, related to countries and languages.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.4.tar.bz2">1.4</a> - September 2008, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Added new ruleset evdev.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.5.tar.bz2">1.5</a> - January 2009, More than 40 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. symbols/inet restructured.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.6.tar.bz2">1.6</a> - May 2009, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Added terminate:* group. Dropped locale-specific models.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.7.tar.bz2">1.7</a> - September 2009, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Restructured rules-generating scripts.
* <a href="http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-1.8.tar.bz2">1.8</a> - January 2010, Around 10 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* <a href="http://people.freedesktop.org/~svu/xkeyboard-config-1.9.tar.bz2">1.9</a> - May 2010, Around 30 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Evdev model dropped.
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.0.tar.bz2">2.0</a> - September 2010, 17 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.1.tar.bz2">2.1</a> - January 2011, 13 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.2.tar.bz2">2.2</a> - April 2011, New structure of descriptions, massive changes in user-visible strings. Special release for GNOME 3
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.3.tar.bz2">2.3</a> - May 2011, 18 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed. Descriptions from 2.2 are polished
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.4.tar.bz2">2.4</a> - September 2011, 9 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.5.tar.bz2">2.5</a> - January 2012, 15 bugs from freedesktop.org bugzilla were fixed.
* <a href="http://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/individual/data/xkeyboard-config-2.5.1.tar.bz2">2.5.1</a> - January 2012, translations updated (after urgent release 2.5)
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.6.tar.bz2">2.6</a> - May 2012, translations, minor fixes
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.7.tar.bz2">2.7</a> - Sep 2012, translations, minor fixes. *.dir files are gone. CTL+ALT type fixed
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/individual/data/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.8.tar.bz2">2.8</a> - Jan 2013, translations, minor fixes, massive updates from Oracle
Contributions to the project. Relations to X Window System implementations.
We kindly ask and encourage people contributing layouts to XFree86 and X.Org repositories to send patches to X Keyboard Configuration Database. We would highly appreciate X implementations using our codebase in their distributions (there was preliminary agreement with X.Org implementation maintainers).
Links
* <a href="http://pascal.tsu.ru/en/xkb/">X Keyboard Extension</a> (by Ivan U. Pascal)
* <a href="http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/xorg-docs/input/XKB-Config.html">The XKB Configuration Guide</a> (by Kamil Toman, Ivan U. Pascal, XFree86 project)
* <a href="http://www.charvolant.org/~doug/xkb/">An Unreliable Guide to XKB Configuration</a> (by Doug Palmer)
* <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/xkbconfig/">X Window Keyboard-related forum</a> (in <a href="http://www.livejournal.com">LiveJournal</a>)
* <a href="./ModelsCompatibility/">Compatibility between keyboard models</a>
* <a href="http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Blog/custom-keyboard-in-linuxx11">Custom Keyboard in Linux/X11</a>
Dreaming of XKB2
For many years, there are rumours, discussions and speculations about XKB2 - the new improved version of XKB. I collected some ideas that might one day be implemented within XKB2
Maintainers
* <span class="createlink"><a href="https://secure.freedesktop.org/write/www/ikiwiki.cgi?page=SergeyUdaltsov&from=Software%2FXKeyboardConfig&do=create" rel="nofollow">?</a>Sergey V. Udaltsov</span>
* Ivan U. Pascal (comaintainer)
-- Main.?SergeyUdaltsov - 01 Apr 2013