[Ean]

I've done Settings Manager> Keyboard Icon> Layout, and there is no slider or selectable options on this page. Clicking any of the headings does nothing.

[stevef]

I've done Settings Manager> Keyboard Icon> Layout, and there is no slider or selectable options on this page. Clicking any of the headings does nothing.

Just below where you select the tabs when viewing the 'Layout' tab, there should be the words 'Use System Defaults' on the upper left side and level with that over on the right there should be an an on/off slider switch type selector.

Do you not have this at all ?

[Ean]

There are the words "Use System Defaults" but no slider.

[stevef]

That's odd. We're looking for a pictogram of an on/off type slider switch over on the right, level with the 'Use System Defaults' text.  As you don't have that pictogram, go back to 'Settings Manager' and under the 'other' section at the bottom click 'Settings Editor'

On the resulting screen, highlight the 'keyboard-layout' line

In the line 'Default' is there a tick in the locked box ?
If necessary, expand the 'Default' entry by clicking on the triangle.
Look for the property 'XkbDisable' (Type boolean).
Is the Value box is ticked or not.

[Ean]

The property 'XkbDisable' (Type boolean). Value box is not ticked; has GB above it. The locked value box is also unticked.

[stevef]

Just to be 100% clear, the settings layout screen should look something like this.
The mouse pointer in the image is indicating the position of the 'Use Default Settings' on/off slider.
With the pictogram switch set to the left, it is possible to make changes.



If I've understood correctly, you don't see the on/off slider pictogram at all.
Your system operates as if 'Use System Defaults' is set to ON and enforcing the US keyboard layout.

Even with 'Use System Defaults' ON, it should be possible to set the keyboard layout to 'gb' temporarily (for duration of the session) to 'gb' from the CLI.  I think I asked you to check this but please can you run these commands and post back.

Code:

setxkbmap -query

Code:

setxkbmap gb

Code:

setxkbmap -query

[Ean]

The ON/OFF slider is not present. I've done this before, but a useful double check.

 setxkbmap -query
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:    gb

setxkbmap gb                    No response-goes back to the cursor.

[stevef]

I could only speculate why your Settings screen is locked and missing the on/off pictogram.  Do you remember if it ever looked correct and worked ?  For example, in your first post you mentioned looking at the many keyboard options available.  Was this using the Setting screen ?

No explicit response expected from the CLI to the set command, but if the 'before' query had shown the map to be 'us', then the set command should have set it to 'gb' which would have been shown in the 'after' query and hopefully corrected the keyboard mapping for the session.

One more place to check.  Please post back with the result of

Code:

cat /etc/default/keyboard

From what you've posted so far I'd expect this will show the layout to be 'gb' as well but worth a check.

[Ean]

The keyboard problem was there right from the start. I can't remember where I found the many keyboard options available.

I've just realised I'm on a Windows machine; I'll do the Terminal command tomorrow morning.

Just to let you know, I'll be going away tomorrow around midday for about a week and will have no Internet access.

[Ean]

cat /etc/default/keyboard
# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="gb"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"