Shortcuts for keyboard layout Ubuntu 22.04

Question

I'm using multiple keyboard layout - en, cs, no, zh I'd like to switch between using different shortcut for each, e.g.

• Ctrl-Shift-1 - English
• Ctrl-Shift-2 - Czech
• Ctrl-Shift-3 - Norwegian
• Ctrl-Shift-4 - Chinese

This way I can switch between the layouts very fast without keeping track what layout I'm actually using as it would be with Opt-Space cycling switch.

With 20.04 I was using the following script, but it seems it is not working in 22.04

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell \                      
 --object-path /org/gnome/Shell \
 --method org.gnome.Shell.Eval \
 "imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager().inputSources[$1]"

Any idea how to achieve the same thing in the latest release?

Answer 1

I have managed to make this work inspired by the other answers. Unfortunately they were lacking some detail so instead will summarize the steps here for assigning keyboard shortcuts to a keyboard layout:

1. Make sure you already have installed all the desired keyboard layouts. They should be shown in the top bar when clicking the language button.

2. Download GNOME extension Eval-GJs: This extension is not on 'extensions.gnome.org', the official Gnome Shell Extensions website, so you must download / clone the repo from github.

3. Install the extension as a regular user as described in its README.md:

cd eval-gjs-main
make install

This will copy it to a folder within your home directory: ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions

3. Determine your gnome version by executing:

gnome-shell --version

4. Edit metadata.json in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/eval-gjs@ramottamado.dev/

Insert your exact gnome version in the array after the line "shell-version".

Log out, then log in again.

5. Launch Extension manager (gnome-extensions-app) Install it if you don't have it, with:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs

6. Enable the extension. Note: the extension will not show up if your exact gnome version is not in metadata.json as explained above.

7. Create the following bash script change-layout.sh and give it execute permissions :

#!/bin/bash
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources current "$1" 
gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /dev/ramottamado/EvalGjs \
--method dev.ramottamado.EvalGjs.Eval \
"imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager().inputSources[$1].activate()"

8. Test the script. Run

change-layout.sh 0

for the first keyboard layout, in the case of OP this is English,

change-layout.sh 1

for the second layout, etc.

9. Go to Gnome settings -> Keyboard -> View and Customize shortcuts -> Custom Shortucts, then assign your desire keyboard shortcut and use one of the commands above for the desired keyboard layout.

Answer 2

You may be missing the activate() part of the command:

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /org/gnome/Shell \
--method org.gnome.Shell.Eval \
 "imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager().inputSources[$1].activate()"

Answer 3

First the problem is that as of GNOME 41, the dbus method Eval() is now restricted with MetaContext:unsafe-mode property (see this commit).

Solution that worked for me:

1. Install GNOME extension Eval-GJs - This extension provides unrestricted Eval() dbus method for running arbitrary code in the compositor.
2. rewrite the layout switching script to use the above extension

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Shell \
--object-path /dev/ramottamado/EvalGjs \
--method dev.ramottamado.EvalGjs.Eval \
"imports.ui.status.keyboard.getInputSourceManager().inputSources[$1].activate()"

Answer 4

Wow, that was a solution for me (clean Ubuntu 22.04). A few notes: update metadata.json file (https://github.com/ramottamado/eval-gjs/pull/1) and install gnome-shell-extension-manager and then enable that extension.

Answer 5

I created GNOME extension to switch among 4 input methods directly. Since pertinent javascript code is executed without shell command gdbus, this doesn't require to use unsafe-mode.

• https://github.com/osamuaoki/inputmethod-shortcuts
• https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6066/shortcuts-to-activate-input-methods/

Now, shortcuts are configurable.

Answer 6

Suffer no more! I've made a simple GNOME Shell Extension and I'm sharing it with the world: Shyriiwook (also available @ GitHub: madhead/shyriiwook).

This is a very simple, minimalist extension. It doesn't have any GUI. After installing it, a new D-Bus interface would be exposed in your GNOME Shell session. You could query it for the current configuration or call a method to activate the desired layout:

$ gdbus introspect \
    --session \
    --dest org.gnome.Shell \
    --object-path /me/madhead/Shyriiwook \
    --only-properties
node /me/madhead/Shyriiwook {
  interface me.madhead.Shyriiwook {
    properties:
      readonly as availableLayouts = ['us', 'de', 'jp'];
      readonly s currentLayout = 'us';
  };
};
$ gdbus call 

    --session 

    --dest org.gnome.Shell 

    --object-path /me/madhead/Shyriiwook 

    --method me.madhead.Shyriiwook.activate "de"

This is easily scriptable, and you can even put this command raw into a custom shortcut under the "Settings" → "Keyboard" → "Keyboard Shortcuts" → "View and Customise Shortcuts" → "Custom Shortcuts".

What's interesting about it, is that Shyriiwook is based on D-Bus, but it doesn't use unsafe and deprecated Eval nor any of its alternatives. It re-implements a similar solution using GJS by accessing the same getInputSourceManager directly.