[vox-tech] mutt, email, usb mini storage, dvorak...

[Bryan Richter]

On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 07:24:54PM -0800, Jonathan McPherson wrote:
> Questions for the group:
> 
> 
> 4. I use the Dvorak keyboard layout.  It is a pain, however, to have to
>    make certain that I have 'loadkeys dvorak' or 'setxkbmap dvorak' in
>    the appropriate startup scripts, and of course typing in my login and
>    password must be done in Qwerty.  Do any of you use this layout?  If
>    so, how have you modified Linux to make Dvorak more of a 'native'
>    layout?  I would like the system to be Dvorak everywhere unless I
>    manually switch it back to Qwerty (for instance, if a friend needs to
>    type something).  Buying a hardwired Dvorak board is obviously the
>    best option, but those are quite expensive and I'm on a grad student
>    budget (besides, what about Linux on my laptop?).

One option would be to have init run loadkeys by putting it in one of
the init.d scripts. Debian does that, although I sort of doubt I was
using it right- the script automatically loads
'/etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz', but whatever I put there would
occasionally be moved to '/etc/console/boottime.old.kmap.gz'. Maybe by
apt-get. I'm not sure.

X can be made to automaticaly load a keymap like this-
	
--- /etc/X11/XF86Config ---
<snip>
Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"keyboard"
	Option		"CoreKeyboard"
	Option		"XkbRules" "xfree86"
	Option		"XkbModel" "pc104"
	Option		"XkbLayout" "dvorak"
EndSection
<snip>
---

With the one caveat of the keymap file occasionally getting moved
around, these two things made my computer all dvorak all the time.


You'll notice my use of the past tense when referring to these fixes.
:-P Dvorak really makes a difference; I could feel it. However, I got
frustrated dealing with the various keybindings that are chosen on the
basis of position, rather than the ascii value (such as h,j,k,l for vi
movement). 

-Bryan