Using Unikey to type Vietnamese in different Keyboard layout

I know how to use ibus-unikey. However, whenever I switch to Unikey, the keyboard layout is changed automatically to English keyboard layout. this is very inconvenient.

For example, I use Swiss German Keyboard. but when I use unikey, its change to English keyboard so when I type Z it appears Y on the screen.

Would anyone of you kindly advise me on how to use Unikey while still keeping the same German keyboard layout. (in Window machine, this is easily as you can type VNese with Unikey in any keyboard layout).

Solution 1:

Ubuntu 14.04, I'm using ibus-unikey with my French keyboard. The Solution is to modify the default English keyboard layout (QWERTY) to match my physical French keyboard layout (AZERTY).

Step 1: Modify the file: /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us based on the fr file (in the same folder). The syntax is not hard to guess. I kinda copy the fr layout into it.

Step 2: Apply the change: sudo dpkg-reconfigure xkb-data. So the English keyboard will now got the French layout which matches my physical Keyboard, and ibus-unikey uses the English keyboard (welcome)

Make sure to create a backup of /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us before editing it.

(voilà, I pulled out my hair for 6 hours to come up with this hack)