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[SOLVED] How to customize dead keys under Wayland / Electron apps?

EDIT: Solved! Check this comment!

I use a keyboard with an american layout. I find it much better for coding and actually love this keyboard to pieces. However, I still need to write in portuguese.

The dead keys in Microsoft Windows worked perfectly for me but the Linux ones do not. Some characters are not available and are replaced by characters that don't exist in the portuguese language.

In X11 I fixed this by using an .XCompose file with the keybinds just like in Windows. Source here, it works perfectly.

In Wayland, the .XCompose file works for pretty much all apps. Firefox is fine, kitty is fine, Vivaldi is fine. Unfortunately electron apps with the --ozone-platform-hint=wayland ignores the .XCompose file and I get the default keybinds. Since I own an nvidia card I really need these flags, otherwise the electron apps will aggressively flicker and/or eat letters while I'm typing.

I've searched far and wide, there are several open bugs in chromium, electron and wayland repositories. Everyone seems to be pointing fingers at each other for years and no workaround to make .XCompose work seems to be available.

I'm wondering if there is an alternative way to customize the dead keys under Wayland. Thanks in advance.

10
10 comments

  • I'm using GNOME Wayland on Fedora 39 and I don't have the problem you describe. I just go to settings and select my keyboard layouts:

    • English (US, intl., with dead keys)
    • English (intl., with AltGr dead keys)

    And everything just works. I specially like the second one because it doesn't interfere with keybindings in games, which can be a problem in GNOME Wayland.

    Oh, I think I get the issue you're having, you can't find the Çç character on the Linux layout 😅 I always have to explain this to people migrating from Windows, it's AltGr+, (right Alt key plus Comma). I like this shortcut better than the Windows layout, but I understand some people might not like it. Unfortunately, I can't answer your question, as I too don't know how to customize the keyboard layout. I just got used to the Linux layout.

    • Yes, I'm using the US international with dead keys layout. I also used it in Microsoft Windows. Here's a couple of annoying examples:

      • ' + c-> result: ć; expectation: ç
      • ' + m -> result: ḿ; expectation: 'm (particularly annoying when typing in english; workaround: ' + space key + m)
      • ' + t -> result: nothing happens; expectation: 't (particularly annoying when typing in english; workaround: ' + space key + t)

      Right Alt + Comma does work for ç so at least I have that going for me. It's still weird to have a different layout for electron apps :/

      • You should be able to type ç the way I described for all apps, so you could just remove your custom layout. I highly recommend the English (intl., with AltGr dead keys) layout, it's perfect for coding and writing in English. It's a bit more work to write in Portuguese, though, so it took me a while to get used to it, but it's worth it if coding is what you're doing most of the time. In this layout, you must hold AltGr to get the dead keys, otherwise it's a normal English layout.

        You can also use two layouts — one for English/coding, one for Portuguese — and the keyboard shortcut Super+Space to switch between them. I always have two layouts setup like this, but I never switch anymore because I just learned to love the English (intl., with AltGr dead keys) layout — and I don't write much Portuguese nowadays.

  • My situation is remarkably similar to yours down to the language, and I happen to have been considering a US keyboard as well so that's disheartening to hear. I have nothing to add right now but will let you know if I come across anything helpful!

  • I'm very happy to report that I found a solution to the problem: keyd. It's amazing.

    Instructions on the github project are crystal clear, but I'll leave some instructions below for Arch Users

    yay -S keyd

    sudo systemctl enable keyd && sudo systemctl start keyd

    Now you can configure the /etc/keyd/default.conf file to your hearts desire. keyd is very feature rich, check the man page to see everything you can do. You can even add layers to your keyboard. Very sweet.

    My personal configuration so far (I will definitely expand it later when I bump into more problems)

    [ids]
*

[main]
' = oneshotm(apostrophe, ')

[apostrophe]
a = a
b = macro(space backspace apostrophe space b)
c = macro(backspace G-,)
d = macro(space backspace apostrophe space d)
e = e
f = macro(space backspace apostrophe space f)
g = macro(backspace apostrophe space g)
h = macro(space backspace apostrophe space h)
i = i
j = macro(space backspace apostrophe space j)
k = macro(backspace apostrophe space k)
l = macro(backspace apostrophe space l)
m = macro(backspace apostrophe space m)
n = macro(backspace apostrophe space n)
o = o
p = macro(space backspace apostrophe space p)
q = macro(space backspace apostrophe space q)
r = macro(backspace apostrophe space r)
s = macro(backspace apostrophe space s)
t = macro(backspace apostrophe space t)
u = u
v = macro(space backspace apostrophe space v)
w = macro(backspace apostrophe space w)
x = macro(space backspace apostrophe space x)
y = macro(backspace apostrophe space y)
z = macro(backspace apostrophe space z)

    After editing /etc/keyd/default.conf make sure you run sudo keyd reload

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