Given a personal preference, this version of the Halmak keyboard layout uses < and > with , and . respectively, instead of the traditional mappings for ( and ) or other setups. Another note is that the CapsLock has been replaced by a secondary Backspace, given the original Halmak design philosophy and realizaiton that no one uses it. (I should probably work on adding either as an options in the script)
the script will detect whether your system is immutable (e.g. Bazzite) and/or declarative (e.g. NixOS) or not, and it will tell you. Currently immutable and declarative distros are not supported because my limited habilities. (working on adding VanillaOS support ATM)
I have included OSX keyboard bundle files alongside the Linux files if you also want to install it on a Mac (though take into account that this version has ( and ) with , and . respectively, like traditionally.
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Download this project's files.
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Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where the files are located.
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Run the installation script with root privileges:
sudo ./install_halmak.sh
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Restart your computer to apply the changes. (not always necessary)
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After restarting, go to
System Settings -> Region & Language. Click the+button, selectEnglish (United States), scroll and clickHalmak, then click theAddbutton.
It should now be available in the top right corner of your menu, a drop-down menu that allows you to click and select the keyboard layout you want (default would probably be "en" with a down arrow next to it).
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Download this project's files.
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Put the
zzfile (from thehalmak-linuxfolder) in/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/. -
Put the
evdev.xmlfile (from thehalmak-linuxfolder) in/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/and overwrite the file that's in there (see "Troubleshooting" for more info). -
Restart your computer.
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Go to
System Settings -> Region & Language. Click the+button, selectEnglish (United States), scroll and clickHalmak, then click theAddbutton.
A. Steps 4 and 5 might need to be flipped; you may need to restart again after step 5, but I don't think so.
B. In step 3, I got the file from this link which was basically what I used to figure out how to create the layout (if you want to check the steps); this Ubuntu guide was also helpful.
C. I skipped one of the steps of updating xorg.lst (it was an optional step on the first link).
D. You could probably copy the zz file's contents and paste it in the en file and it should still show up, if you don't want zz to show up (it should appear as "en" in your top right corner).
E. This might work for any system using xkb.
F. The default keyboard shortcuts for switching between keyboard layouts are Shift+Super+Space (to go to the previous layout) and Super+Space (to shift to the next layout in order). If you want to change this, you can go to Settings -> Devices -> Keyboard Shortcuts (then scroll to the "Typing" section).
G. I used Colemak's mappings as the base when I switched the keys to Halmak's layout, so third and fourth layers might work with the same mappings; of important note is that I left the CAPS lock as a Backspace key, which isn't specified in the default Halmak layout. This could be changed probably pretty easily by editing the zz file, then going to the "CAPS" line and changing the codes on the line, but I don't know what the code is for CAPS lock.
H. For learning a layout, I find it helpful on a second screen (or smartphone) to pull up the layout to look at while typing and memorizing on some kind of typing test like typeracer.com.
I. If you'd like to try to create a custom layout of your own, you just need to go to the zz file for instance and switch around the values of the keys. I don't know what all the codes are for the keys, but you can get some ideas by finding other codes in the files in the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ folder.