Switched keyboard layouts aren't enabled in console in Fedora 45 Beta Workstation

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Problem

If you configure a “switched keyboard layout” [1] while installing Fedora 45 Beta Workstation, as is typical for several languages, you will likely find that you cannot switch layouts in the console (non-graphical) mode. This issue does not affect KDE, or traditional installer-based images.

[1] A configuration that includes two layouts in its definition and defines a key combination to switch between them. The secondary layout is most often US English. You can see a list of affected layouts here - look for layouts that have “something,us” in the xlayout column.

Cause

Fedora 45 Workstation installer doesn’t write the necessary /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf with XkbOptions defined, that is used to configure the switch combo key. This is because the installer cannot control layouts directly on GNOME, so it prompts you to do input configuration via the GNOME Control Center; however, even if you do this, the installer does not really know what you did, so it does not realize it needs to write the file. In Fedora 45, this configuration is necessary for console input because we now use kmscon, which uses X-style layout configuration rather than the old kbd-style configuration.

Related Issues

Bugzilla report: #2508253
Workstation ticket: #430

Workarounds

Create or edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf and add e.g.

Option "XkbOptions" "grp:shifts_toggle"

for switching with Shift keys, or

Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"

for switching with Alt+Shift.

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You can discuss this issue in Ask Fedora .

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An update has been released to fix this issue in Fedora Linux 45.

After you update your system in your usual way (and possibly reboot), you should no longer be affected by this problem. If the problem persists, please start a new discussion topic and we’ll help figure out what’s still wrong.

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Please note that this is an installation issue. While the problem was fixed, the F45 Beta images stay broken. The fix will first appear in nightly composes, and then in the final Fedora 45 images.