Auto apply a keymap using udev when a Typematrix is plugged
Switching keymap
As some of you might know, I am now using a Typematrix 2030 on a daily basis. When I switched to this great keyboard I also adopted a new layout on it : Colemak.
However, to be able to pair with others not using a Colemak mapping, I did not set the default mapping to Colemak but I instead use an udev rule to set the input method to Colemak only for the Typematrix.
Write a keymap switch script
Thanks to
@BitardMichael tips
and existing scripts I ended up with the following script saved in
/usr/local/bin/set_typematrix_colemak_mapping
One of the tricky part was having a way of executing the script only
when the keyboard is ready, without blocking udev’s job (or the
keyboard is not yet visible by the X system). The workaround I found
was scheduling the execution of the job with the simple
at command.
Tell udev to run the script on keyboard detection
The process is really easy, all you need to do is to add the
following to a new file :
/lib/udev/rules.d/85-typematrix.rules
Adapting it to your use case
If you are using another keyboard than a Typematrix you will need to
adapt the udev rule with the proper Vendor / Product IDs (you can
grab them with lsusb). For the
xinput part, you will need to adjust the grep to match
your hardware.
Of course the same goes for your layout : colemak / dvorak / bépo …