How can I change the Keyboard Layout on login screen?

Question

I changed my Keyboard Layout from Swedish to English, but now my password doesn’t work and I can’t login. I need a way to change the keyboard layout at the login screen without having access to the keyboard or a way to enter the password using characters not available on the keyboard itself.

Answer 1

• Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch console mode. Type your username and press Enter and also now type your password.

• Next type sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration and hit Enter type your password again and follow screen instruction.

As usual, it will prompt you for the model of keyboard (what the keyboard is), and then for the keyboard layout (what the keys should do)

To apply new settings, restarting the keyboard-setup service with this

 sudo service keyboard-setup restart

Answer 2

This works for me: Change de variable XKBVARIANT = “us”, on file /etc/default/keyboard to the name of layout you want and reboot.

Answer 3

This is an old post, but recently I have faced with the same issue and the solution above did not help.

During the Linux Mint installation, I accidentally selected the wrong keyboard layout. Later I fixed it by removing the old one and adding the proper keyboard, but unfortunately, this had no impact on the login screen.

Solution:

1. login and show your current, working layout configuration with setxkbmap -print -verbose 10
2. check the layout that is used on the login screen: cat /etc/default/keyboard
3. set up properly the login screen keyboard layout with sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

That was the only solution that worked for me. I hope that it helps you as well.

Answer 4

For anyone who's been facing the same problem and nothing worked here's an idea boot from the recovery mode then scroll down to root then write the following command to reset your password "passwd yourUserName" then enter your new password for that username hope this helps :)

Answer 5

1. Use tty3 using Ctrl+Alt+F3

2. sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard to look like this:

   # KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE
   Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.
   XKBMODEL="macbook78"<br>
   XKBLAYOUT="de"<br>
   XKBVARIANT="basic"<br>
   XKBOPTIONS=""<br>
   BACKSPACE="guess"
   

3. sudo setupcon

4. reboot

After that it changed my layout.

Answer 6

In GNOME 42, localectl told me VC Keymap: n/a.

Running sudo localectl set-x11-keymap dk set the login screen layout to Danish.

I have no input source selection available under Region & Languages > Login Screen.

See further this GNOME help page

Answer 7

I just had the same problem on Ubuntu 22. On the login screen click on the accessibility options and activate the screen keyboard, then you should be able to get your special character and login.

Then once logged in, you should be able to do the proper configuration described by the other answers.