Score:2

Ubuntu

How can I type "å" on a non-Danish keyboard?

Florian Echtler

2/20/23, 9:09 AM

I usually have German and English keyboard layouts on Ubuntu 20.04, but I recently started writing in Danish as well, and I can write most special letters (e.g. "æ" via AltGr-a, "ø" via AltGr-o etc.). However, I can't figure out how to get an "å". I guess it should be °a, but the ° isn't a dead key (unlike e.g. ^, ´ etc.). Any ideas how to fix this?

103

0 + 0

keyboard

keyboard-layout

language-support

20.04

francois P

2/20/23, 9:12 AM

You can use a virtual keyboard of course, but it can be found in language specific extension of ascii table no ? alt-gr + number of the character (over 127)

Florian Echtler

2/21/23, 8:49 AM

See @terdon's answer below - it's Unicode now, i.e. `Ctrl-Shift-u` followed by `00e5`. But that's honestly a bit tedious.

Score:5

Ubuntu

terdon

2/20/23, 9:29 AM

I use the English international with dead keys layout, and on my system I can get å with AltGr+Shift+0 (this combination is the dead key) and then a.

If that doesn't work for you for some reason, you can also enter the unicode code directly. First press Ctrl+Shift+u to enter unicode mode, then write the relevant code, 00e5 in this case, and finally Enter.

Another option (suggested by @vanadium in a comment) is to enable "compose key" in your keyboard settings. Then, you can use compose key+o+a to get å. You can chose various keys as the "compose key".

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Florian Echtler

2/20/23, 11:10 AM

Thanks, the second suggestion does work, although it's pretty tedious. The first suggestion results in a literal `°` being typed out, it's not a dead key on the German layout apparently. I guess I'll need to dive into Xmodmap and friends :-/

terdon

2/20/23, 11:13 AM

@FlorianEchtler also try some all possible keys. That's how I found that the AltGr+Shift+0 (that's zero, by the way, not the letter o) was a dead key for me: I just tried all the combinations of AltGr+Shift+key until I found one. So you probably have one as well.

Florian Echtler

2/20/23, 1:53 PM

The following xmodmap command does what I was looking for: `keycode 0x31 = dead_circumflex dead_abovering grave notsign U2032 U2033 bar bar` (it turns the non-dead degree symbol on the upper left key into a dead_abovering symbol which can then be composed with a, u, etc.)

terdon

2/20/23, 1:57 PM

@FlorianEchtler great! Please post that as an answer then, and accept it as soon as the system lets you, so the next person with a similar problem can find it.

vanadium

2/21/23, 8:53 AM

I would add the possibility to set up a Compose key here. That linux only feature allows to enter foreign characters after hitting the Compose key. Compose followed by o a (or a o) will enter å. Enable a compose key under Keyboard settings.

terdon

2/21/23, 10:01 AM

@vanadium nice! On my system only compose+o+a works (not a+o), but yes indeed!

Florian Echtler

2/24/23, 8:53 AM

Where is the option to configure the Compose key? Can't seem to find it. Or what's the default on 20.04?

Score:1

Ubuntu

Florian Echtler

2/21/23, 8:46 AM

Based on the discussion with @terdon, I've figured out that I can use xmodmap -e "keycode 0x31 = dead_circumflex dead_abovering grave notsign U2032 U2033 bar bar" to turn the degree symbol on the upper-leftmost key into a dead key, i.e. I can now either type that key twice for a regular degree symbol, or type it once followed by "a" to get the letter "å" I was looking for all the time :-)

The original definition for the German keyboard is dead_circumflex degree grave notsign U2032 U2033 bar bar, so it's just changing degree to dead_abovering that does the trick.

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vanadium

2/21/23, 8:51 AM

`xmodmap` is not vary reliable anymore - switching keyboard layouts may stop it from working, for example.

terdon

2/21/23, 10:03 AM

Please see my updated answer. Vanadium had a very good suggestion.

Florian Echtler

2/24/23, 8:56 AM

True, but I need to use xmodmap anyway for a non-standard laptop keyboard, so I'm sticking with that approach for now.