Changing the keyboard language in AlmaLinux 8

During the installation of your AlmaLinux 8 VPS, you are given the option to set a keyboard language. You may however want to change it later, for example for a specific user. In this article, we show you how this works.

Step 1

Connect to your VPS using SSH or the VPS console.

Step 2

In AlmaLinux 8, you need to know which layouts / keymaps can be selected for changing the keyboard language. A complete overview can be found in the collapsible element below.

available keyboard layouts

ANSI-dvorak
al
al-plisi
amiga-de
amiga-us
applkey
at
at-mac
at-nodeadkeys
at-sundeadkeys
atari-de
atari-se
atari-uk-falcon
atari-us
az
azerty
ba
ba-alternatequotes
ba-unicode
ba-unicodeus
ba-us
backspace
bashkir
be
be-iso-alternate
be-latin1
be-nodeadkeys
be-oss
be-oss_latin9
be-oss_sundeadkeys
be-sundeadkeys
be-wang
bg-cp1251
bg-cp855
bg_bds-cp1251
bg_bds-utf8
bg_pho-cp1251
bg_pho-utf8
br
br-abnt
br-abnt2
br-dvorak
br-latin1-abnt2
br-latin1-us
br-nativo
br-nativo-epo
br-nativo-us
br-nodeadkeys
br-thinkpad
by
by-cp1251
by-latin
bywin-cp1251
ca
ca-eng
ca-fr-dvorak
ca-fr-legacy
ca-multi
ca-multix
cf
ch
ch-de_mac
ch-de_nodeadkeys
ch-de_sundeadkeys
ch-fr
ch-fr_mac
ch-fr_nodeadkeys
ch-fr_sundeadkeys
ch-legacy
cm
cm-azerty
cm-dvorak
cm-french
cm-mmuock
cm-qwerty
cn
cn-altgr-pinyin
croat
ctrl
cz
cz-bksl
cz-cp1250
cz-dvorak-ucw
cz-lat2
cz-lat2-prog
cz-qwerty
cz-qwerty_bksl
cz-rus
cz-us-qwertz
de
de-T3
de-deadacute
de-deadgraveacute
de-deadtilde
de-dsb
de-dsb_qwertz
de-dvorak
de-latin1
de-latin1-nodeadkeys
de-mac
de-mac_nodeadkeys
de-mobii
de-neo
de-nodeadkeys
de-qwerty
de-ro
de-ro_nodeadkeys
de-sundeadkeys
de-tr
de_CH-latin1
de_alt_UTF-8
defkeymap
defkeymap_V1.0
dk
dk-dvorak
dk-latin1
dk-mac
dk-mac_nodeadkeys
dk-nodeadkeys
dk-winkeys
dvorak
dvorak-ca-fr
dvorak-es
dvorak-fr
dvorak-l
dvorak-r
dvorak-ru
dvorak-sv-a1
dvorak-sv-a5
dvorak-uk
dz
ee
ee-dvorak
ee-nodeadkeys
ee-us
emacs
emacs2
en-latin9
epo
epo-legacy
es
es-ast
es-cat
es-cp850
es-deadtilde
es-dvorak
es-mac
es-nodeadkeys
es-olpc
es-sundeadkeys
es-winkeys
et
et-nodeadkeys
euro
euro1
euro2
fi
fi-classic
fi-das
fi-latin1
fi-latin9
fi-mac
fi-nodeadkeys
fi-old
fi-smi
fi-winkeys
fo
fo-nodeadkeys
fr
fr-azerty
fr-bepo
fr-bepo_latin9
fr-bre
fr-dvorak
fr-latin0
fr-latin1
fr-latin9
fr-latin9_nodeadkeys
fr-latin9_sundeadkeys
fr-mac
fr-nodeadkeys
fr-oci
fr-old
fr-oss
fr-oss_latin9
fr-oss_nodeadkeys
fr-oss_sundeadkeys
fr-pc
fr-sundeadkeys
fr_CH
fr_CH-latin1
gb
gb-colemak
gb-dvorak
gb-dvorakukp
gb-extd
gb-intl
gb-mac
gb-mac_intl
ge
ge-ergonomic
ge-mess
ge-ru
gh
gh-akan
gh-avn
gh-ewe
gh-fula
gh-ga
gh-generic
gh-gillbt
gh-hausa
gr
gr-pc
hr
hr-alternatequotes
hr-unicode
hr-unicodeus
hr-us
hu
hu-101_qwerty_comma_dead
hu-101_qwerty_comma_nodead
hu-101_qwerty_dot_dead
hu-101_qwerty_dot_nodead
hu-101_qwertz_comma_dead
hu-101_qwertz_comma_nodead
hu-101_qwertz_dot_dead
hu-101_qwertz_dot_nodead
hu-102_qwerty_comma_dead
hu-102_qwerty_comma_nodead
hu-102_qwerty_dot_dead
hu-102_qwerty_dot_nodead
hu-102_qwertz_comma_dead
hu-102_qwertz_comma_nodead
hu-102_qwertz_dot_dead
hu-102_qwertz_dot_nodead
hu-nodeadkeys
hu-qwerty
hu-standard
hu101
ie
ie-CloGaelach
ie-UnicodeExpert
ie-ogam_is434
il
il-heb
il-phonetic
in-eng
iq-ku
iq-ku_alt
iq-ku_ara
iq-ku_f
ir-ku
ir-ku_alt
ir-ku_ara
ir-ku_f
is
is-Sundeadkeys
is-dvorak
is-latin1
is-latin1-us
is-mac
is-mac_legacy
is-nodeadkeys
it
it-geo
it-ibm
it-intl
it-mac
it-nodeadkeys
it-scn
it-us
it-winkeys
it2
jp
jp-OADG109A
jp-dvorak
jp-kana86
jp106
kazakh
ke
ke-kik
keypad
kr
kr-kr104
ky_alt_sh-UTF-8
kyrgyz
la-latin1
latam
latam-deadtilde
latam-dvorak
latam-nodeadkeys
latam-sundeadkeys
lk-us
lt
lt-ibm
lt-lekp
lt-lekpa
lt-std
lt-us
lt.baltic
lt.l4
lv
lv-adapted
lv-apostrophe
lv-ergonomic
lv-fkey
lv-modern
lv-tilde
ma-french
mac-be
mac-de-latin1
mac-de-latin1-nodeadkeys
mac-de_CH
mac-dk-latin1
mac-dvorak
mac-es
mac-euro
mac-euro2
mac-fi-latin1
mac-fr
mac-fr_CH-latin1
mac-it
mac-pl
mac-pt-latin1
mac-se
mac-template
mac-uk
mac-us
md
md-gag
me
me-latinalternatequotes
me-latinunicode
me-latinunicodeyz
me-latinyz
mk
mk-cp1251
mk-utf
mk0
ml
ml-fr-oss
ml-us-intl
ml-us-mac
mm
mt
mt-us
ng
ng-hausa
ng-igbo
ng-yoruba
nl
nl-mac
nl-std
nl-sundeadkeys
nl2
no
no-colemak
no-dvorak
no-latin1
no-mac
no-mac_nodeadkeys
no-nodeadkeys
no-smi
no-smi_nodeadkeys
no-winkeys
pc110
ph
ph-capewell-dvorak
ph-capewell-qwerf2k6
ph-colemak
ph-dvorak
pl
pl-csb
pl-dvorak
pl-dvorak_altquotes
pl-dvorak_quotes
pl-dvp
pl-legacy
pl-qwertz
pl-szl
pl1
pl2
pl3
pl4
pt
pt-latin1
pt-latin9
pt-mac
pt-mac_nodeadkeys
pt-mac_sundeadkeys
pt-nativo
pt-nativo-epo
pt-nativo-us
pt-nodeadkeys
pt-olpc
pt-sundeadkeys
ro
ro-cedilla
ro-std
ro-std_cedilla
ro-winkeys
ro_std
rs-latin
rs-latinalternatequotes
rs-latinunicode
rs-latinunicodeyz
rs-latinyz
ru
ru-cp1251
ru-cv_latin
ru-ms
ru-yawerty
ru1
ru2
ru3
ru4
ru_win
ruwin_alt-CP1251
ruwin_alt-KOI8-R
ruwin_alt-UTF-8
ruwin_alt_sh-UTF-8
ruwin_cplk-CP1251
ruwin_cplk-KOI8-R
ruwin_cplk-UTF-8
ruwin_ct_sh-CP1251
ruwin_ct_sh-KOI8-R
ruwin_ct_sh-UTF-8
ruwin_ctrl-CP1251
ruwin_ctrl-KOI8-R
ruwin_ctrl-UTF-8
se
se-dvorak
se-fi-ir209
se-fi-lat6
se-ir209
se-lat6
se-latin1
se-mac
se-nodeadkeys
se-smi
se-svdvorak
se-us
se-us_dvorak
sg
sg-latin1
sg-latin1-lk450
si
si-alternatequotes
si-us
sk
sk-bksl
sk-prog-qwerty
sk-prog-qwertz
sk-qwerty
sk-qwerty_bksl
sk-qwertz
slovene
sr-cy
sun-pl
sun-pl-altgraph
sundvorak
sunkeymap
sunt4-es
sunt4-fi-latin1
sunt4-no-latin1
sunt5-cz-us
sunt5-de-latin1
sunt5-es
sunt5-fi-latin1
sunt5-fr-latin1
sunt5-ru
sunt5-uk
sunt5-us-cz
sunt6-uk
sv-latin1
sy-ku
sy-ku_alt
sy-ku_f
tj_alt-UTF8
tm
tm-alt
tr
tr-alt
tr-crh
tr-crh_alt
tr-crh_f
tr-f
tr-intl
tr-ku
tr-ku_alt
tr-ku_f
tr-sundeadkeys
tr_f-latin5
tr_q-latin5
tralt
trf
trf-fgGIod
trq
ttwin_alt-UTF-8
ttwin_cplk-UTF-8
ttwin_ct_sh-UTF-8
ttwin_ctrl-UTF-8
tw
tw-indigenous
tw-saisiyat
ua
ua-cp1251
ua-utf
ua-utf-ws
ua-ws
uk
unicode
us
us-acentos
us-alt-intl
us-altgr-intl
us-colemak
us-dvorak
us-dvorak-alt-intl
us-dvorak-classic
us-dvorak-intl
us-dvorak-l
us-dvorak-r
us-dvp
us-euro
us-hbs
us-intl
us-mac
us-olpc2
us-workman
us-workman-intl
uz-latin
wangbe
wangbe2
windowkeys

From command-line, you get a complete overview of available locales with the command:

localectl list-keymaps

Or, if you know the abbreviation of the language, you can search more specifically with the command:

localectl list-keymaps | grep us

Here, replace us with the abbreviation of the relevant language, e.g. nl, fr, de

Step 3

Then adjust the keyboard language with the command:

localectl set-keymap keymapname

Replace 'keymapname' with the abbreviation you chose in step 2. The change is automatically retained after a reboot.

This concludes this tutorial on how to change your keyboard language in AlmaLinux 8.