Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

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hlawson38
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Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by hlawson38 »

I set up my Linux system to type Greek polytonic characters. It's Ubuntu 16.04, Unity desktop environment, the default. My locale is set to "en_US.UTF-8"; my physical keyboard is an ordinary American keyboard. Here is what I did, expressed as instructions.

Find "System Settings", and click on "Text Entry".

Go to "Input sources to use", and click "+"

Find "Greek (polytonic)" and select it.

Choose keys for switching input sources. My system has two input sources, "English (US)" and "Greek (polytonic)". I use Control+/ to change input sources.

Fiddle with the other choices to decide what you want.

This web page will show you how to key in the Greek characters using the typical American keyboard:
https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/vi ... .php?t=759

I have not tested every key, but the ones that I have tested match the web page.
Hugh Lawson

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Re: Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by daivid »

There's a useful link on using Greek fonts with linux here

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oiK ... bk/preview
λονδον

villandra
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Re: Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by villandra »

David's page on the Greek keyboard in Ubuntu is in Greek. LOL

Aetos
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Re: Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by Aetos »

Needless to say, the page shown has nothing to do with setting up a Greek keyboard in Linux! It's probably from a tax FAQ on alternate ways of providing tax documentation on sales from gas stations of liquid fuels to businesses (to obtain a rebate)

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jeidsath
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Re: Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by jeidsath »

That's not the original text. It looks like a bad copy-paste. I've left a document comment.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

hlawson38
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Re: Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by hlawson38 »

hlawson38 wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2017 7:17 pm I set up my Linux system to type Greek polytonic characters. It's Ubuntu 16.04, Unity desktop environment, the default. My locale is set to "en_US.UTF-8"; my physical keyboard is an ordinary American keyboard. Here is what I did, expressed as instructions.

Find "System Settings", and click on "Text Entry".

Go to "Input sources to use", and click "+"

Find "Greek (polytonic)" and select it.

Choose keys for switching input sources. My system has two input sources, "English (US)" and "Greek (polytonic)". I use Control+/ to change input sources.

Fiddle with the other choices to decide what you want.

This web page will show you how to key in the Greek characters using the typical American keyboard:
https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/vi ... .php?t=759

I have not tested every key, but the ones that I have tested match the web page.
FWIW, since I posted this, I have decided that I prefer to type polytonic Greek in Emacs, using the Emacs input method greek-ibycus4. You can have lots of files open in Emacs, but when you set an input-method, it is active only in the buffer(file) you are using when you set the input method. All the other buffers (files) remain as they were as far as keyboard input is concerned.

I don't type much Greek. I do a lot of Greek handwriting, for example copying sentences into a notebook for parsing and for grammar study.
Hugh Lawson

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bcrowell
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Re: Greek (polytonic) keyboard in Ubuntu 16.04

Post by bcrowell »

As long as we're necroposting, here's what I do on my linux box:

Code: Select all

setxkbmap 'us,gr' -variant ',polytonic' -option 'grp:win_menu_switch'
After this command, the left windows key puts me in US mode, while the right windows key puts me in polytonic Greek.

Here's the resulting keyboard layout:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Keyboard_layouts#Greek_el

Accents work like this:

; acute accent
' grave accent
[ circumflex
: smooth breathing
" rough breathing
] iota subscript
{ diaresis

When combining these you have to type the accent before the breathing.
Ben Crowell, Fullerton, California
Ransom is an innovative presentation of Homer made with open-source software: https://bitbucket.org/ben-crowell/ransom

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