| 1 | # indicator-keyboard-led - simulate keyboard lock keys LED |
| 2 | |
| 3 | This is a Unity application indicator designed for keyboards without lock |
| 4 | keys LED. It allows the user to check the state of the three locks (Caps lock, |
| 5 | Num lock and Scroll lock) without requiring any mouse or keyboard action. It |
| 6 | also allows the lock keys to be toggled with mouse clicks, which could be |
| 7 | useful for keyboards without Scroll lock keys or malfunctioning keyboards. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ## Screenshots |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ![indicator default][sc1] |
| 12 | Default appearance of the indicator with Num lock on and Caps and Scroll locks |
| 13 | off. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ![indicator menu][sc2] |
| 16 | Menu of the indicator, shown on click. The locks can be toggled by clicking |
| 17 | the respective item in the menu. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ## Installation from Ubuntu PPA |
| 20 | |
| 21 | sudo add-apt-repository ppa:adrianiainlam/indicator-keyboard-led |
| 22 | sudo apt-get update |
| 23 | sudo apt-get install indicator-keyboard-led |
| 24 | |
| 25 | After installation the postinst script will prompt you for preferences |
| 26 | configuration. These config are explained here: |
| 27 | |
| 28 | ### Order |
| 29 | |
| 30 | This option allows you to reorder the locks and also to hide |
| 31 | some locks if you don't need them. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Use a string consisting of zero or one occurrence of the |
| 34 | characters 'N', 'C' and 'S' to set this option. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | For exampe, the default order is "Num Caps Scroll". |
| 37 | ![Num Caps Scroll][sc1] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | **CNS** changes this to "Caps Num Scroll". |
| 40 | ![Caps Num Scroll][sc4] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | **NC** hides Scroll lock from the default appearance. |
| 43 | ![Num Caps][sc5] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [sc1]: screenshots/sc1.png |
| 46 | [sc2]: screenshots/sc2.png |
| 47 | [sc4]: screenshots/sc4.png |
| 48 | [sc5]: screenshots/sc5.png |
| 49 | |
| 50 | ### xdotool |
| 51 | |
| 52 | `xdotool` is used to emulate key strokes to set/unset locks on mouse clicks. |
| 53 | If you installed xdotool at a non-default location, please provide its full |
| 54 | path (e.g. /home/user/bin/xdotool) with this option. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | If it is installed in your $PATH environment variable, or not installed at |
| 57 | all, leave this option blank. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | ### Changing your mind |
| 60 | |
| 61 | If you want to change these settings afterwards, simply run |
| 62 | |
| 63 | sudo dpkg-reconfigure indicator-keyboard-led |
| 64 | |
| 65 | and you will be prompted again. |
| 66 | |
| 67 | ## Usage |
| 68 | |
| 69 | The indicator will be configured to autostart on log-in. To start using the |
| 70 | indicator after installation, log-out and log-in again, or manually start |
| 71 | the indicator (search for "indicator-keyboard-led" in the dash). |
| 72 | |
| 73 | The indicator should be shown at the top right corner, with a filled circle |
| 74 | representing a lock turned on and an unfilled circle representing a lock |
| 75 | turned off. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | Clicking on the indicator should result in a menu with the three locks. |
| 78 | Clicking on the menu item would cause the corresponding lock to toggle. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | ## Known bugs / Troubleshooting |
| 81 | |
| 82 | ### Indicator label does not show on Xfce / XUbuntu |
| 83 | |
| 84 | See [#6](https://github.com/adrianiainlam/indicator-keyboard-led/issues/6). |
| 85 | |
| 86 | ### Pressing Scroll Lock does nothing |
| 87 | |
| 88 | It seems to be a common problem that Scroll Lock is not usable in Ubuntu. |
| 89 | To solve this, do the following (assuming US keyboard): |
| 90 | |
| 91 | > # backup your symbols file |
| 92 | > sudo cp /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us{,.distribution} |
| 93 | > |
| 94 | > Add the following line in the `xkb_symbols "basic" {` section. Do not worry |
| 95 | > if that second line is not there, it is only there for some languages and |
| 96 | > was not there for us on my system. |
| 97 | > |
| 98 | > ... |
| 99 | > modifier_map Mod3 { Scroll_Lock }; <==<< Add this line |
| 100 | > |
| 101 | > include "level3(ralt_switch)" <==<< before this line |
| 102 | > }; |
| 103 | > |
| 104 | > |
| 105 | > You may have to do the same in your other layouts if you switch between |
| 106 | > languages. |
| 107 | > |
| 108 | > Also, there is a cache where xkb layouts live. You should clear it before |
| 109 | > restarting your X server to check the new keyboard symbol file(s). |
| 110 | > |
| 111 | > sudo dpkg-reconfigure xkb-data |
| 112 | |
| 113 | *By Pykler and Giovanni Toraldo on AskUbuntu.* [Source][quotesrc]. Slightly |
| 114 | modified. [Original source][origsrc] by dm+ on PCLinuxOS-Forums. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [origsrc]: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,125690.msg1052201.html?PHPSESSID=2qsv83lve6dgd0ivq14bfcjc30#msg1052201 |
| 117 | [quotesrc]: http://askubuntu.com/a/597757/274080 |
| 118 | |
| 119 | ### Scroll lock does not appear on indicator |
| 120 | |
| 121 | Your installed GTK+ version is probably older than 3.18, which |
| 122 | does not support [`gdk_keymap_get_scroll_lock_state ()`][gtkdoc-scroll]. |
| 123 | The earliest Ubuntu release that supports GTK+ 3.18 is 16.04 (Xenial). |
| 124 | If you use an older version, Scroll lock functionality will be disabled. |
| 125 | Please consider upgrading your system if you really want Scroll lock. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | If your installed GTK+ is 3.18+ then please file a bug report. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [gtkdoc-scroll]: https://developer.gnome.org/gdk3/stable/gdk3-Keyboard-Handling.html#gdk-keymap-get-scroll-lock-state |
| 130 | |
| 131 | ### Drop-down menu only has "Quit", the clickable locks do not appear |
| 132 | |
| 133 | Please verify that xdotool is installed in your PATH with the executable |
| 134 | bit set. If you provided a custom path to xdotool please verify that it |
| 135 | is correct and is an executable regular file. |
| 136 | |
| 137 | ## Localization |
| 138 | |
| 139 | Unfortunately, in order to work-around labels not being shown on newer |
| 140 | non-Unity-based Ubuntus, I have re-designed the indicators to be based |
| 141 | purely on icons instead. This means there will no longer be labels to |
| 142 | localize, and I instead have hardcoded icons. |
| 143 | |
| 144 | The icons are SVGs so you can still manually edit them if you want. |
| 145 | Look for the `<text>` tag at the end of the SVGs. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | The menu items shown on click are still localized. |
| 148 | |
| 149 | I have included a screenshot below to show the old design (version 1.1) |
| 150 | which you can still install manually if you wish. |
| 151 | |
| 152 | > As motivated by Issue #1, this script has been localized to French (with |
| 153 | > the assistance of Wikipedia and Google Translate). Corrections to the |
| 154 | > translation, as well as translations to other languages, are welcome. |
| 155 | > Feel free to create a pull request or open an issue. |
| 156 | > |
| 157 | > ![indicator default, French locale][sc7] |
| 158 | > Default appearance in a French locale. |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [sc7]: screenshots/sc7.png |
| 161 | |
| 162 | ## License |
| 163 | |
| 164 | The program "indicator-keyboard-led.py" is released under the MIT License. |
| 165 | Please refer to the file for the full text of the license. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | The icons "indicator-keyboard-led*.svg" are released to the public domain. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | ## Credits |
| 170 | |
| 171 | I would like to thank [Tobias Schlitt](https://github.com/tobyS), who wrote |
| 172 | [indicator-chars](https://github.com/tobyS/indicator-chars) which I used |
| 173 | as a reference when writing this software. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | The icons used in the indicator (indicator-keyboard-led*.svg) are modified |
| 176 | from the file "emblem-readonly.svg" by |
| 177 | [Jakub Steiner](http://jimmac.musichall.cz) |
| 178 | who released it to the public domain for the |
| 179 | [Tango Icon Library](http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Icon_Library). |
| 180 | |
| 181 | --- |
| 182 | |
| 183 | ## Motivation |
| 184 | |
| 185 | I was a user of [indicator-keylock][ind-kl], but only one key lock can be shown |
| 186 | on the panel. I didn't like the Notify OSD events either. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | I then came across [lks-indicator][lks] and [indicator-xbdmod][xbdmod], but |
| 189 | I didn't like the fact that they refresh the indicator on a regular time |
| 190 | interval (every *x* milliseconds) rather than on state changes (only when |
| 191 | the locks are toggled). |
| 192 | |
| 193 | I also thought it would be fun to be able to toggle the locks on-screen. |
| 194 | |
| 195 | [ind-kl]: https://launchpad.net/~tsbarnes/+archive/ubuntu/indicator-keylock |
| 196 | [lks]: https://github.com/SergKolo/lks-indicator |
| 197 | [xbdmod]: https://github.com/sneetsher/indicator-xkbmod |