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Changing the keyboard language in Debian 9

During the installation of your Debian-VPS, you are given the option to set a keyboard language. You may however want to change it later, for example for a specific user. In this article, we show you how this works.

  • These steps only change the language in the VPS console. Do you use Putty or a terminal (Mac / Linux), for example? Then, the language of your OS is used.
  • Use sudo or a root user when using the commands in this article

 

Step 1

Connect to your VPS using SSH or the VPS console as root user and then use the command:

dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

 

Step 2

You will first see the screen below. Here, you can change the keyboard model but adjusting it can lead to problems. Do not change anything here and press 'Enter' to continue to the actual language choices.

dpkg reconfigure keyboard configuration - model selection


 

Step 3

You will now see an overview of the different options within your current language selection. Scroll down to 'other' and press 'Enter' to see the general language overview.

dpkg keyboard configuration - select keyboard layout


 

Step 4

Adjust your language as desired and click 'Ok'. You now get the option to set an 'Alt Gr' and / or a 'Compose' key. You are free to set this if desired.

dpkg keyboard configuration layout language


 

Step 5

The changes are made permanent with the command:

setupcon

 

 

This concludes this tutorial on how to change your keyboard language in Debian 9.

Should you have any questions left regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them via the ‘ContactUs’ button at the bottom of this page.

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