Typing Accents / Compose Key?

User Support General
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Is there a way to easily type accented letters in Qubes, mainly in word or document processors? I use LibreOffice Writer frequently and would like to be able to type accented letters with a compose key, which I remember doing in Pop OS. If there was another easy way of typing accents I would be welcome to that.

I am currently using a testing release: R4.1 from Open-QA (build 03-27-2021).

On other distros, I have enabled a compose key via Gnome-Tweaks, and have tried installing Gnome-Tweaks on Qubes and enabling a compose key, first in my AppVM, just to test, and then my TemplateVM (Fedora-33), but that did not work. Would Gnome-Tweaks have to be installed in Dom0 to enable a compose key? Is there a sys-compose-key VM type of workaround? Are there known methods for enabling compose keys or easily typed accented letters?

Thanks in advance.

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Hi @qubes-kernel-5.8,

with XFCE setting

I don’t know howto do it… Other readers, a idea?

With pinyin input

See the language-localization documentation.

With xmodmap

with the xev software, choose the key (and so the keycode) you want to use for the compose key.

Then add the ~/.xmodmaprc file, with a content like:

keycode 134 = Multi_key

Here the compose key is the right-window-key (keycode=134) on my non-us keyboard.

For trying it, manual load the setting:

xmodmap ~/.xmodmaprc

and try the compose key: <compose> ' o displays ó.

All the details on the Archlinux wiki: Xmodmap.
Getting it on each start of your VM? see the config-files documentation.

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I found it, and it’s the simpler solution.

Open the Applications menu (most left Q in the task bar), choose System Tools > Keyboard.
In the Keyboard opened window, select the Layout tab, deselect the Use system defaults checkbox. Then in the Compose key field, choose your wanted compose key (example: Caps Lock, Right Win, Scroll Lock, …).
The change will be available only after a session restart.

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For me it works great to install the UK international keyboard

http://zolid.com/uk-intl-kb/index.htm

in dom0 and in all my templates. I wish this great layout was one of the standard options.