Enable Input Source Switching in Cosmic Desktop by System76

input_source_switch_comsic_desktop.md

Description

At present, Cosmic Desktop by System76 lacks a GUI to configure input source switching. However, the system uses the XKB (X Keyboard Extension) system, which allows manual configuration of input switching by modifying the relevant XKB settings.

The grp:win_space_toggle option defines a key combination (Super+Space or Win+Space) for switching between input sources. The provided workaround manually sets this option by editing the xkb_config file.

This approach gives users the flexibility to switch between keyboard layouts without waiting for native support in Cosmic Desktop.

Notes

• This workaround is temporary and may become obsolete if future updates to Cosmic Desktop include native support for input source switching.
• For users with different preferences, other XKB options can be configured similarly.

Step-by-step Guide

1. Locate the XKB Configuration File

The XKB configuration file for Cosmic Desktop is located at:

~/.config/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicComp/v1/xkb_config

This file contains the keyboard layout settings used by Cosmic Desktop.

2. Edit the XKB Configuration

Open the XKB configuration file in your preferred text editor.

nano ~/.config/cosmic/com.system76.CosmicComp/v1/xkb_config

3. Modify the options Key

By default, the options key is set to None, which means no custom keyboard options are configured. To enable switching between input sources using the Super+Space hotkey, modify the options field as follows:

Before:

options: None,

After:

options: Some(",grp:win_space_toggle"),

This change maps the Super+Space (Win+Space) key combination to toggle between keyboard layouts.

4. Log Out and Log In

After saving the changes to the configuration file, log out of your session and log back in for the changes to take effect.

5. Verify the Hotkey

To verify that the Super+Space hotkey is correctly set up, you can inspect the available XKB options by running the following command:

cat /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst | grep space

This command will list the available spacebar-related options, and grp:win_space_toggle should be included in the list.

now cosmic has the option to switch between layouts on key combination. But this is still useful because cosmic doesn't recognize custom layouts, and while you can specify one in the config file and it will work, the switching combination would break it again. However this method bypasses the compositor logic, and the switching happens directly in xkb

That's interesting, I have left PopOS and cosmic so I do not follow the cosmic development. Thanks for the update.

also you don't need the comma at the beginning you can just do Some("grp:win_space_toggle")