XKeyboard

XKeyboard is a web keyboard layout descriptor for X11 / Wayland, Linux virtual consoles, MacOS and MSKLC for Windows. The keyboard layout is defined by a simple enumeration of the keys of the keyboard. XKeyboard generates XKB symbol files, Linux loadkeys .map overlays, KeyLayout XML for MacOS and MSKLC .klc files for Windows.

XKeyboard is accessible at:

• https://xkeyboard.ea9c.com/
• https://xkeyboard.vercel.app/

XKeyboard is Open Source and is JAM licensed.

Linux loadkeys

The Linux loadkeys tab exports a UTF-8, LF-terminated .map overlay for the Linux virtual console. It does not configure X11, Wayland, terminal emulators or SSH. Install your distribution's kbd tools and make the us console keymap available. The overlay changes printable keys; the US baseline supplies Space, Enter, modifiers, function keys, navigation and keypad behavior.

Run these commands from a Linux virtual console, replacing layout.map with the downloaded filename. Keep a recovery session available: loading a map affects all virtual consoles and login prompts, and lasts beyond the current login session.

# Back up the current console keymap before making changes.
sudo dumpkeys > console-backup.map

# Validate the baseline and overlay without changing any keyboard bindings.
loadkeys --parse us ./layout.map

# Enable Unicode keyboard input on the current virtual console.
sudo kbd_mode -u

# Load the US baseline and then apply the custom printable-key overlay.
sudo loadkeys us ./layout.map

# Restore the backed-up keyboard bindings if needed.
sudo loadkeys ./console-backup.map

# Inspect hardware keycodes; showkey exits after ten seconds without input.
sudo showkey --keycodes

Restoring the keymap does not restore the previous keyboard mode. Check the mode with kbd_mode before changing it. Unicode output also needs an appropriate console font; a valid mapping does not guarantee that every glyph can be displayed.

Simple layouts repeat plain/Shift on the AltGr levels. Complex layouts use all four supplied levels and bind right Alt to AltGr. Empty complex levels emit VoidSymbol. Ctrl combinations use conventional ASCII control codes derived from the assigned character, and Alt/Meta output supports ASCII only; unsupported combinations produce no output. Caps Lock supports ASCII and Latin-1 case pairs, but not arbitrary Unicode case pairs. Accents are literal characters, not dead keys, and the overlay does not add compose definitions.

Each populated entry must be one printable Unicode scalar below U+F000, excluding surrogates and control characters. Multi-character entries, supplementary-plane characters, unsupported physical positions and duplicate keycodes block export. TypeMatrix uses the same standard PC keycodes as the other exporters; verify them on your hardware with showkey --keycodes.

Boot-time installation is distribution-specific. Arrange for the baseline to load before the overlay; this file is not a complete standalone KEYMAP.

Development

Install dependencies with bun install. Run bun run dev for the application, bun run build for a production bundle, bunx tsc --noEmit for type checking, and bun test for generator tests. On Linux, also validate generated maps using loadkeys --parse; actual keyboard behavior needs a Linux virtual console, preferably in a disposable VM.