Why is changing the keyboard layout so complicated in Windows compared to GNU + Linux and other normal OSes?

dullbananas (Joseph Silva)@lemmy.ca to Linux@lemmy.ml – 59 points –
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For what it's worth, making a custom layout actually is a huge pain in the arse. That's a pretty niche use case, but there is definitely no reason for it to be as much of a hassle as it is

I did that on Windows. It worked. It did not work for me in Linux :(

I just changed one of the existing layouts. Very easy in any text editor, you just need to find the proper name or Unicode code for each function/character.

I see. I should try that. Thanks

If you're using xkb, try this guide. Of course, backup any system files before modifying them, and just to be sure, add a 2nd keyboard layout as backup and know how to switch between them to have a fallback if you corrupt the primary one.

There might be TUI or GUI tools too, probably way more convenient for a one-off change on a single PC.

Thanks, that is a good starting point. All the GUIs I found have been deprecated, so I'll go with the purely text-based approach. At least it will be trivial to copy it to my other machines. Fingers crossed!