Re: Using .XCompose

[Zenaan Harkness <zenaan@freedbms.net>]

I'm not sure if it's been asked or stated by you, but which desktop are you using?  If you're new to Debian, perhaps just the default.

I am using XFCE and in the menu:

   Applications → Settings → Keyboard

there are three tabs "Behaviour", "Application Shortcuts" and "Layout".

Under the "Layout" tab, I have the option for "Compose key" - this is a drop down list, and I chose the "Scroll Lock" key as my compose key.

As you can see in the above, I am producing arrows, by pressing:

   "Scroll Lock"  and then  ">"

For my standard US layout, ">" is "Shift + Period".

I don't know this will be useful, but I did not catch that you had checked your desktop settings.

Good luck,




On Mon, Jul 06, 2020 at 05:34:59AM +0000, Ajith R wrote:
> Hi,
> I am new to Linux and Debian.I am trying to build a custom layout for my mother tongue Malayalam (India, Kerala).
> The problem I am trying to tackle:
> One of the Malayalam letters, ങ (U+0D19), is used much more commonly in its geminate form which is composed of three unicode charcters ങ ് ങ (U+0D19 U+0D4D U+0D19)  which will yield the geminate form ങ്ങ So, when I type, I want the ങ to be replaced with ങ്ങ.The keyboard layout is working fine as far as I can see. It does yield the correct letters. What doesn't seem to work is the .XCompose mechanism. Please tell me what I am missing.
> Relevant part of my layout file /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/in
> -----------------------
> partial alphanumeric_keys
> xkb_symbols "mal_puthuniraA" {
>      name[Group1] = "Malayalam (Puthu Nira Aarambham)";
>      key.type="FOUR_LEVEL";
>  key <AC09>   { [   U0D41, U0D19, U0D4E, U0D71] }; //  ു MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN U, ങ്ങ MALAYALAM LETTER NGA geminate form,  ൎMALAYALAM LETTER DOT REPH,  ൱ MALAYALAM NUMBER ONE HUNDRED include "level3(ralt_switch)"
> };----------------------
> My .XCompose file in my home directory is---------------------include "%L" 
> <XK_Shift_L> <U0D19> : "ങ്ങ"
> <U0D19> : "ങ്ങ"
> ങ : "ങ്ങ"---------------------
> I found the name XK_Shift_L in keysymdef.h file. I tried the unicode character and its code as well to identify the keypress. I tried with only one of the lines as well. XCompose(3) — libx11-doc — Debian buster — Debian Manpages was consulted. I have tried restarting after making changes which didn't help. 
> Am I referring to the keypress correctly? What am I missing?
> Thanks for your help,ajith
> 
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> XCompose(3) — libx11-doc — Debian buster — Debian Manpages
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