2021-06-16
Since about 2011 I’ve started using dvorak as my main keyboard layout and like the efficiency compared to QWERTY.
Note to self: x-keyboard-config on arch linux overwrites the file where the dvorak russian keymap is stored and by that the xserver fails to set the keymap, returning to default qwerty. This can be solved by loading the keymap from a custom location? Or maybe to pin the file so that the package manager doesn’t overwrite it?
Dvorak is also usable in dosbox via a custom mapper file that your can find here
You can enable the layout by saving this in your settings directory and mapperfile=dvorak-0.74.map to your sdl section of your dosbox config.
Dvorak is now built in as a keymap in dosbox.
You can enable the layout by running KEYB dv103 in a dosbox
prompt or setting the following in your dosbox config file.
[dos]
keyboardlayout=dv103
To use dvorak in dos download this file containing dvorak.com Transfer it to your C:\DOS folder for example and add this to your AUTOEXEC.bat:
C:\DOS\DVORAK.COM
When your computer boots the program will say DVORAK is loaded and you’re good to go
The MS-DOS supplemental disk also contains a dvorak keyboard layout. Install and put this in your AUTOEXEC.bat:
KEYB DV,,C:\DOS\DVORAK.SYS
When learning russian I had to type some stuff in russian, as I found
out that there was a phonetic keyboard I was excited but it didn’t work on
dvorak layout. So some guy named Oleg made a phonetic russian keyboard
layout in dvorak and you can download it
here. When you want to use it you
have to append the information from the file to
/usr/share/X11//xkb/symbols/ru
When you want to load it you can type
setxkbmap -layout ru -variant phonetic_dvorak</pre>
Since having to setup the keyboard after login can be useful if you don’t have the rights to edit system configuration files on your system(eg. work) but it’s not a durable solution for your own system. If you want to make these things semipermanent you can use the handy program called localectl which writes an xorg.conf.d/ file. In my specific case these are the commands to set the keymap for the console and for within X. For the console I only use normal dvorak whereas in X I want to be able to switch(with menu key) and use the right alt as compose key.
# localectl set-x11-keymap --no-convert dvorak,ru pc104 ,phonetic_dvorak compose:ralt,grp:menu_toggle
# localectl set-keymap --no-convert dvorak