My preferred keyboard layout is neo_qwertz, which is a variant of the Neo layout, which is kind of the like German Dvorak for those who don’t know. It’s a more ergonomic layout with lots of layers. It can be enabled in Gnome keyboard settings in all distros I’ve tried including Fedora Silverblue. Except Bazzite and Bluefin. Using those images, it doesn’t work. When you type, the wrong characters show up. What is Ublue doing that could cause this when it works on regular Fedora Silverblue? Any tips are appreciated.
It might not help but an alternative keyboard layout works for me. But I am using Aurora and this mean KDE Plasma. My keyboard layout is colemak.
I have enabled it in System Settings/Input&Output and also in /etc/vconsole.conf
KEYMAP=“us-colemak”
Thanks for the reply. I tried Aurora/KDE and it doesn’t work there either. It’s definitely DE-independent.
We don’t use those layouts and also don’t really touch them. It might be missing package or something but someone who uses those would need to investigate it and create a PR to fix it
I would install a normal Fedora in a virtual machine and if neo_qwertz is working there I would look which rpm package does contain the relevant files.
Then you either can install the relevant package(s) as layered package in Aurora or better build a customized image which contains the package(s).
Thanks for the feedback. It’s strange. They layout has different layers. If you enable it it works as if right alt, which is the layer key for layer 4, is constantly pressed when using Bazzite/Bluefin, leading what you type to be nonsense. Anyway, I don’t have the technical knowledge to figure out why this doesn’t work, so I guess I’ll stick to using regular Fedora Silverblue.
Thanks for the suggestion but that I already know that it works on other distros, it is not a matter of packages being needed but more likely a configuration change with unforeseen consequences. Anyway, I’ll keep using Fedora Silverblue then. Thanks again!
We don’t install the whole stuff that silverblue/kinoite for example install, so yes its more likely that some package is missing because we don’t touch those settings at all.
Looking again at your post I am not sure I understand properly what your problem is.
Were you able to select neo_qwertz and it didn’t work properly?
Or didn’t you even find neo_qwertz so that you could not add it?
The former. The layout can be enabled in settings like in all distros, it’s just that it doesn’t work right because different layers of the keyboard layout are mixed up. It’s like the key that enables layer #4 is constantly pressed meaning if you’re trying to type normal letters you get numbers instead or whatever happens to be on layer 4. It’s a very strange bug.
Aah, ok. Thanks. When choosing neo_qwertz what excatly do you choose? I am asking because when I took a look and searched for neo I only found this
Yeah, you got it. The bug is there with the regular Neo layout as well. I just use a special variant called Neo QWERTZ or neo_qwertz. There are several variants of the layout.
Not sure if the bug is also here in Aurora. I have to admit I don’t even know what to type to see if the bug is here as well. I have been a simple Colemak user for the last 12 years or so. 
If you enable the layout just typing on the keyboard should produces letters. Instead, you get this, which is the fourth layer:
Here’s the website https://neo-layout.org/
You can see the different layers at the bottom if you’re interested. My variant is basically QWERTZ, so the German variant of QWERTY, but with all the other layers added which are great for programming.
Thanks for the pointers. I did a test and added Neo, QWERTZ and when typing something (level 1) it feels like a normal German keyboard layout which is according to the documentation the proper behavior (NeoQwertz – von Neo ohne Umlernen profitieren).
This means that it works fine here, using Aurora.
Strange. I booted into Aurora with two different machines and it works fine now on my end as well. It didn’t work with Aurora/KDE before. Then I did the same thing with Bluefin and it didn’t work on both machines. I have no clue why it is so inconsistent. 
1 Like
I will quote Jorge here:
Computers were a mistake
2 Likes
I have a Bluefin in a virtual machine and I was unable to find neo_qwertz. Only found Neo 2
Yeah, by default Gnome hides the more esoteric layouts and you have to show them by running “gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources show-all-sources true".
But you can just try Neo 2 if you like it shows the same bug as the layers are the same.
1 Like