[kbd] Characters '<', '>' etc. with German layout

[Alexey Gladkov]

On Wed, Jan 05, 2022 at 04:49:20PM +0100, R. Diez wrote:
> Hi all:
> 
> I am using Ubuntu 20.04.4, with the MATE Desktop Environment, on a
> Lenovo ThinkPad T440s laptop.
> 
> I believe that the right keyboard model for this laptop is a "Lenovo
> (previously IBM)", "IBM Space Saver".
> 
> On xkeycaps, I think the right model is "IBM", "ThinkPad 770".
> 
> I have 2 keyboard layouts installed: Spanish and German, and I am having
> difficulty typing some common ASCII characters like '<', '>', the pipe
> symbol '|', etc. That is very annoying when working on a shell console.
> 
> When using the Spanish layout, I can get '<' and '>' by holding the
> right Alt key and one of the shift keys, and then pressing 'x' or 'z'
> (it may be 'y', because 'y' and 'z' and swapped on German keyboards).
> 
> However, when using the German layout, the same key combinations
> generate some Unicode variant of '<' and '>', namely '‹' and '›', which
> the shell does not recognise as redirection indicators.
> 
> I haven't managed to type the pipe symbol ('|') yet with the German
> layout, so I am constantly switching layouts.

How did you configure the keymap in the console?

Since you mentioned ubuntu, I can assume that you have the console-setup
package installed. Is it so ?

If so, can you show me content of /etc/default/keyboard ?

> Is there an easy way to fix these annoyances? Or do I have to learn how
> to create my own keyboard layouts?

If you use console-setup then it's better to ask a package maintainers.

> I am completely unfamiliar with Linux keyboard support. Is the kbd
> project the right place to ask at all?

It depends :)

-- 
Rgrds, legion