How to change keyboard layout in i3?

You can use setxkbmap:

setxkbmap -layout us,de
setxkbmap -option 'grp:alt_shift_toggle'

Just change the keyboard layouts us,de to what ever you prefer. If you want i3 to run these commands on startup, just add them to your config file "~/.i3/config" and prepend "exec".

exec "setxkbmap -layout us,de"
exec "setxkbmap -option 'grp:alt_shift_toggle'"

Checkout http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:window_managers:keyboard_layout_in_i3

For me only the following worked in Manjaro + i3:

exec_always "setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us,ru,ua -variant ,, -option grp:alt_shift_toggle"

I specified this in ~/.config/i3/config file

It indeed seems that everything must be written inside a single command in the i3 config file in order for setxkbmap to work as desired, at least on Arch linux.

Example: English + Czech qwerty keyboard, ALT+SHIFT toggle:

exec "setxkbmap -option 'grp:alt_shift_toggle' -layout us,cz -variant ,qwerty"

The desired shortcut set by XKB option grp:alt_shift_toggle

But using setxkbmap -option in ~/.i3/config for configuring keyboard layouts is not the best approach.

• Bluetooth keyboards can go to sleep to save battery then reconnect. In that case layout configuration will be reset to default.
• There is no way to configure keyboards separate. For example, my Bluetooth keyboard has no Right Alt so I am using Caps Lock on it.

If this is your case consider using /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf (man xorg.conf DESCRIPTION for all available paths):

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "system-keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        Option "XkbLayout" "us,ru"
        Option "XkbOptions" "grp:toggle"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "Bluetooth Keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        MatchProduct "Bluetooth 3.0 Keyboard"
        Option "XkbLayout" "us,ru"
        Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:caps"
EndSection

See man xkeyboard-config

• LAYOUTS for language codes in XkbLayout
• OPTIONS for switching to another layout hotkeys (all grp:*)

Or: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/45499/384576

See xinput list for MatchProduct

More: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/220082/384576

insert into your .config/i3/config

# switch keymap

bindsym $mod+Ctrl+Shift+F11 exec setxkbmap -layout ch -variant fr
bindsym $mod+Ctrl+Shift+F12 exec setxkbmap -layout ru -variant phonetic