Re: keymaps

[Frank Murphy <murphyf+deb-ppc@f-m.fm>]

> Sorry, I don't get it!

Yeah, the keyboard configuration setup on Linux leaves much to be desired. But 
it should work in the end.

> I have a keymap "ibook2-de-latin1" of which i thought it might help me
> to get a working alt and/or apple key,anything that lets me have these
> ][{}@\ etc. signs by holding down the alt or the apple key so i don't
> loose the special german characters, and enables me to write accents.

Are you talking about X or the console? Where did you get this 
ibook2-de-latin1 keymap? Was it installed by Debian, or did you get it from 
somewhere else?

> So this mentioned keymap wanted form me the files I mentioned before,
> thats why I asked for them.
> Now I changed the references or includes or links or what they ar called
> in the keymap to the ones you pointed out.
> Now I can load the keymap, but I lost the special german characters and
> still can't write accents.
> What can i do to get a de-keyboard that uses the alt or the apple key to
> produce special-characters like @{}[]\ etc.

do a dpkg-reconfigure console-data and reselect the keyboard that you think 
you have. (Sounds like a modern German layout, with keys that have 
a-umlaut/o-umlaut, plus a euro-sign on the 'G' key). Afterwards, in the 
console, start vim. Then, press 'i' to get into insert mode, and press the 
Right-hand alt key and the G key at the same time to get a Euro symbol. Then 
try to press the blue "fn" key, one of the alt keys, and the G.

> And how do I get this for both, console and X ?

Unfortunately, the configurations for console and X are done totally 
differently. The dpkg-reconfigure console-data only works on the console. 
Configuring X is a different matter. Let's work on the console first.

> The best would be if the keyboard or what it produces acts like in
> macOS, just changing the apple to the ctrl key of course.
> I mean i don't mind using ctrl+Q to quit instead of apple+Q  like in
> macOS.

The problem with that as a global default is that the Control key is marked 
with 'ctrl'. You should be able to reverse these keys for your own setup 
though, using xmodmap.

> by the way, I have no problem switching consoles with alt+fn+Fx or with
> alt+ctrl+fn+Fx in X

OK. Let me know how the rest works.

Frank