Toggling keyboards in Xubuntu

I recently switched to Xubuntu from Ubuntu. I wanted to retain the ability to switch from ES to US keyboard by pressing my right control key. For this purpose, I created a new file at /usr/bin called togglekeyboard. The file contains:

#!/bin/bash
setxkbmap -option grp:switch,grp:rctrl_toggle us,es

us and es stand for US and Spanish keyboards. You will better know the id of your desired keyboard flavour.

Then, rctrl_toggle asks setxkbmap to toggle the keyboard on the right-control-key-pressed event. I chose this key as I am not using it for anything else. I got used to press the left control key for all properly controlish purposes. Other options that may suit you are:

• toggle – right alt key
• ctrl_shift_toggle – ctrl+shift
• alt_shift_toggle – alt+shift
• ctrl_alt_toggle – ctrl+alt
• caps_toggle – CapsLock
• lctrl_toggle – left control key
• switch – switch while the right alt is pressed
• lwin_switch – switch while the left Windows key is pressed
• rwin_switch – switch while the right Windows key is pressed
• win_switch – switch while the any Windows key is pressed