g3kb-switch

This is a CLI keyboard layout switcher for Gnome 3 and 4x. It is not based on the X interface but rather implements direct D-Bus messaging with the Gnome Shell.

Installation

Prerequisites

Build requires glib-2.0, so you need to install the corresponding development package.

In Ubuntu.

$ sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev

In Fedora / RHEL / CentOS.

$ sudo dnf install glib2-devel

In Gentoo.

$ sudo emerge -av dev-libs/glib

Commands may differ in other Linux distributions.

Gnome 41 and newer

Build and install the switcher.

$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make install

In Gnome 41 and newer, the switcher will only work with G3kbSwitch Gnome Shell extension, because method org.gnome.Shell.Eval which was used in the original implementation of the switcher is now disabled for security reasons.

Build and install the extension.

$ cd ../extension
$ make install  # no sudo required!

It is wise to make sure that the extension is enabled and works correctly. To enable the extension, use program gnome-extensions-app or command-line program gnome-extensions.

A small smoke-test of the extension.

$ gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/g3kbswitch/G3kbSwitch --method org.g3kbswitch.G3kbSwitch.List
(true, '[{"key":"0","value":"ru"},{"key":"1","value":"us"}]')
$ gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/g3kbswitch/G3kbSwitch --method org.g3kbswitch.G3kbSwitch.Get
(true, '1')
$ gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell --object-path /org/g3kbswitch/G3kbSwitch --method org.g3kbswitch.G3kbSwitch.Set 1
(true, '')

Older versions of Gnome (3.x and 40)

Older versions of Gnome Shell expose method org.gnome.Shell.Eval which means that the switcher can be built to work with this method rather than using the extension. In this case, the cmake configuration step requires one extra option.

Build and install the switcher.

$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make -DG3KBSWITCH_WITH_GNOME_SHELL_EXTENSION=OFF ..
$ sudo make install

Usage

Usage: g3kb-switch [-p]      Show the current layout group
       g3kb-switch -l        Show available layout groups
       g3kb-switch -n        Switch to the next layout group
       g3kb-switch -s ARG    Switch to layout group ARG
       g3kb-switch -h        Show this message and exit
       g3kb-switch -v        Show the program version and exit

Integration with vim-xkbswitch

Basically, put in .vimrc lines

let g:XkbSwitchEnabled = 1
let g:XkbSwitchLib = '/usr/local/lib/libg3kbswitch.so'

See details about configuration rules for vim-xkbswitch here.