Problem
The Fedora 43 Live installers (Workstation, KDE, and Spins) offer input configuration, with a link to the GNOME Control Center on Workstation, or a built-in selector on KDE and other desktops. However, they do not allow you to select multiple keyboard layouts, or a keyboard layout and an input method. The built-in selector only allows you to select a single layout, and on GNOME, the installer will refuse to proceed if you configure anything but a single layout capable of inputting ASCII characters.
This is awkward for languages like Russian, Ukrainian and Greek (where you typically configure two layouts, one for typing native characters and one for typing Latin characters), and Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other languages where the use of input methods is standard.
Note: This also affects Fedora 42 Workstation install image.
Cause
This is due to the input configuration implementation in the new ‘web UI’ installer interface (used on live images) being relatively new, and its authors not being fully aware of all the ins and outs of input with different languages. A better design is in the works for Fedora 44 and later.
Related Issues
Bugzilla report: #2402430
Bugzilla report: #2402675
Workarounds
The older ‘gtk UI’ installer interface used on the dedicated installer images (Fedora Everything network install image, Fedora Server install image, etc) has a better implementation of this. It will (usually) give a sensible default input configuration for the language you select on the first screen, including configuring switched layouts. It does not handle input methods, however.
For installs from the live images, we recommend you install using a single layout capable of inputting ASCII characters - probably English (US) - then set up your preferred configuration in the initial setup wizard or desktop configuration tool after install.
Be aware that the layout you select during install will also be the one used at the console post-install; changing the configuration using a desktop tool after install may not change the console configuration. To change the console layout after install, edit /etc/vconsole.conf and change KEYMAP="us" to KEYMAP="ru", for instance. After doing this, run dracut -f as root to ensure the configuration used during early boot is also updated. However, if you use disk encryption, make sure in advance that the new layout is capable of typing your current password, otherwise you won’t be able to unlock the disk after the reboot.