Enterprise Linux - Keyboard 'deadkeys' problem

Problem:

 

When using the ‘Oracle Developer Days’ virtualbox virtual server, I found that the keyboard was set to US (English).

 

As very Englishman knows only too well, US English is NOT English.

 

So I switched the keyboard to the appropriate ‘United Kingdom International’ (although I’ve no idea what is international about it, since England is the mother country and centre of the universe). However the entry provided includes ‘with dead keys’. This bring about the very strange situation of DEADKEYS where you must click twice on the ‘ and “ to get anything, but what is input is still not a linux quote or double-quote. It appears that this option is for international characters with accents etc. Again, none of these are appropriate for true English so why this exists at all is anyone’s guess.

 

Solution:

 

There is much to be said of the web about this but it’s mostly un-applicable (or nonsense as we say).

 

My solution was to use the following command and insert it into the /etc/profile or other profile (bash, csh etc). For the oracle user I had to edit the .bashrc file. But it works.

 

setxkbmap gb

 

 

 

Happyjohn.