About

This project provides a consistent, well-structured, frequently released, open source database of keyboard configuration data. The project is targeted at XKB-based systems.

What is XKB?

The X KeyBoard (XKB) Extension essentially replaces the core protocol definition of a keyboard. The extension makes it possible to specify clearly and explicitly most aspects of keyboard behaviour on a per-key basis, and to track more closely the logical and physical state of a keyboard. It also includes a number of keyboard controls designed to make keyboards more accessible to people with physical impairments.

There are five components that define a complete keyboard mapping: symbols, geometry, keycodes, compat, and types; these five components can be combined together using the 'rules' component of the database provided by this project, xkeyboard-config.

See also the complete specification for the XKB Extension.

Documentation

• XKB configuration information, see: Configuration

• For information on how to enhance the database itself, see: Enhancing

• For guidelines to making contributions to this project, see: Contributing

• To submit bug reports (and patches), please use the issue system in freedesktop.org’s Gitlab instance

Contributing

Contributions are much appreciated! See our contribution guide for further details.