A X11 US keyboard layout for italians, explained steb by step

us_it now supports Windows 11. You'll find the .klc file in the win directory, and a zip containing a pre-compiled installer.

After installation, if it doesn't work, try to reboot. Yes. Windows never changes.

To fix the following error message:

xkeyboard-config: /usr/share/X11/xkb exists in filesystem

run the following:

sudo mv /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/X11/xkb.bak  # backup the directory  
sudo pacman -Syu

Then reinstall using the install.sh script.

We italians all know how annoying it is to switch between two layouts just to type accented characters, while the us layout is still more comfortable for coding.

First off, I want to make it clear: I don’t fully understand what’s happening or why it works—but it does. xkb’s documentation is vague and confusing, so I followed this tutorial that roughly outlines the steps.

Since there’s already a tutorial on creating a layout, I won’t explain how I made it—just how to install and use it.

The relevant files are:

• /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us
• /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst
• /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst
• /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.xml
• /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml

To install the new layout, simply replace these files with the ones in the repo. Then go into your keyboard settings and select the layout: US > English (US for Italians).

Here’s what the result looks like:

For accents, just hold AltGr and press the corresponding letter. For example:

• à = AltGr + a
• À = AltGr + a (with caps lock on) or AltGr + Shift + a

Same applies to the other vowels.

The only exception is the accented e:

• é = AltGr + e
• è = AltGr + Shift + e

To type uppercase É or È, just turn on caps lock.

• Arch wiki: link