Which US international keyboard layout gives me all umlauts and sharp S?

Solution 1:

I use a regular US keyboard layout, but for all extended characters I mapped the print screen key or the right Windows/Super key to be the compose key. So now when I need a ç I type PrtSc followed by the c and , keys. Similarly for characters like ß (PrtScss) or © (PrtScOc).

See the Wikipedia entry on the compose key for more information. To set the Compose key (in Gnome), you can try Settings → keyboard → Shortcuts tab → compose key option, but that doesn't list the PrtSc key I want, so I did the following:

Install dconf-editor: sudo apt-get install dconf-tools
Open dconf-editor and go to org → gnome → desktop → input-sources and change xkb-options to ['compose:prsc']

Solution 2:

I found two good ways to do it in Ubuntu.

[1] altgr-intl Layout

First one is to put this into the terminal or if you want it permanent into the .bashrc file: setxkbmap -rules evdev -model evdev -layout us -variant altgr-intl

Afterwards when clicking the right-alt-key/altgr-key the whole keyboard changes into phoentics. Here are the important ones:

altgr+q = ä, altg+Q = Ä
altgr+p = ö, altgr+P = Ö
altgr+y = ü, altgr+Y = Ü
altgr+s = ß

Press buttons at the same time.

Problems:

there seems to be only one ß (no ẞ)
might not work, when altgr button is set to be the compose button
need to learn shortcuts

[2] Set a compose button

A second way is to set a compose button. Install Ubuntu Tweaks sudo apt-get install gnome-tweaks and start it. Click on Keyboard and Mouse and on Compose Key. Activate it and select a button you like, for example right-alt. Now you can do:

compose key + " + a = ä
compose key + " + A = Ä
compose key + " + u = ü
compose key + " + U = Ü
compose key + " + o = ö
compose key + " + O = Ö
compose key + ss = ß
compose key + SS = ẞ

Press buttons after each other.