I am not very experienced in all the configuration with linux. One of them that gives me headache all the time is about the encoding (UTF-8, ISO, etc.) and the keyboard-layout (german, swiss german, us, etc.).

Now, I found out that I need to manipulate (tried on sidux, but should work on ubuntu and debian as well) three packages to ensure that my swiss-german keyboard layout is used on the ttys and within the graphical window system.

I used the following three commands (with root or sudo) and chose the “correct” stuff to make it work with my swiss german keyboard:

dpkg-reconfigure locales (choose only the necessary utf-8 stuff)
dpkg-reconfigure console-data (swiss german latin it is)
dpkg-reconfigure console-setup (swiss german latin it is)

I was asked the “right” questions to ensure that my language and my keyboard layout will work.

This blog entry is mainly for me to remember and all of you who just might to get a starting clue to get things done…