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I want to have a virtual keyboard with Japanese and Arabic, which my physical keyboard doesn't have stickers for (and doesn't have enough space even if I bought).

I thought of using it through onboard, but it works only for the current layout.

Is there a way to either configure a layout to onboard other than the one currently used, or configure layouts with setxkbmap that aren't regularly toggeled through (So I can toggle only English and Russian usually, but sometimes go to the other languages)?

Oded Sayar
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  • You can easily [install and] switch between keyboard layouts, and use onboard to see the current keyboard layout. I use this method to switch between different European languages. I have not used it for Japanese and Arabic, but I think it could work. Let us hope that someone who knows one of these languages will see your question and and give a good answer :-) – sudodus Dec 12 '17 at 16:18
  • I just don't want the languages I rarely type in to interfere with my daily usage... It'll be inconvenient to toggle through 4 languages when I just need 2 – Oded Sayar Dec 12 '17 at 16:37
  • I am running Lubuntu, and I get Arabic characters on my onboard via setxkbmap ar. But not much happens with setxkbmap jp. In the latter case I guess you need to install something, for example a language pack for Japanese. But I am sure there are many people who have better answers than my comments. – sudodus Dec 12 '17 at 16:46
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    Adding or removing an input language takes a few seconds. Why not simply add Arabic or Mozc via the GUI when you need it, and then remove it? – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Dec 12 '17 at 16:49
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    @sudodus: Japanese is usually typed using a special input method instead of a particular keyboard layout. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Dec 12 '17 at 16:52
  • there are existing scripts built with setxkbmap or gsettings to provide more than 4 layouts. you could configure a solution that uses that sort of script to provide your standard configuration (us,ru) but when activated switch to another layout set (us,ru,jp,ar? us,jp,ar?). see https://askubuntu.com/q/107945/669043 and similar questions. – quixotic Dec 29 '17 at 00:03

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