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Documentation › System

Languages and keyboards

Changing the language, formats, keyboard layouts and switching between them

Language

Settings → Language & Region: the interface language, and the formats (dates, numbers, units, money). Log out and in again to apply. Day and month names follow the interface language; numbers, units and money follow the region of the formats.

Your choice is kept in ~/.config/aurora/locale.conf; the system's default (from the installer) in /etc/default/locale.

Aurora's own apps are fully translated into English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Arabic and Hindi. The system, Firefox and LibreOffice come in the 20 languages of the boot menu:

en_US.UTF-8, en_GB.UTF-8, it_IT.UTF-8, de_DE.UTF-8, fr_FR.UTF-8, es_ES.UTF-8, pt_BR.UTF-8, pt_PT.UTF-8, nl_NL.UTF-8, pl_PL.UTF-8, sv_SE.UTF-8, tr_TR.UTF-8, ru_RU.UTF-8, uk_UA.UTF-8, zh_CN.UTF-8, zh_TW.UTF-8, ja_JP.UTF-8, ko_KR.UTF-8, ar_EG.UTF-8, hi_IN

Keyboard layouts

Settings → Keyboard (or Language & Region): add layouts; switch between them with Alt+Shift. The Compose key types special characters (Compose e ' gives é). Your layouts are kept in ~/.config/aurora/keyboard.conf.

Chinese, Korean and Japanese

Settings → Language & Region → Input Methods: Chinese (Pinyin), Korean (Hangul) and Japanese (Mozc). Type the sound in Latin letters and pick the characters from the suggestions that appear next to the cursor (Space takes the first, numbers the others; Hangul composes syllables as you type). Ctrl+Space switches between plain letters and the input method; the top bar shows which one is on (拼, 한, あ). It works with the on-screen keyboard too.

  • When the system language is Chinese, Korean or Japanese, its input method is on from the first login.
  • Turning one on for the first time needs a log out and in (apps learn about it when they start).
  • Your keyboard layouts stay: while an input method is on, Ctrl+Space goes through each layout from the list above, then each input method. Adding or removing a layout updates it right away.
  • Input method settings opens Fcitx's configuration: shortcuts, number of suggestions, fuzzy pinyin, the Shuangpin layouts.
  • Online suggestions (“Cloud Pinyin”) are off: they would send what you type to an online service. Turn them on in the input method settings if you want them.

Aurora uses Fcitx 5 with its Pinyin engine (libime), libhangul and Mozc. The choice is kept in ~/.config/aurora/input-methods and ~/.config/fcitx5/profile; Fcitx runs only when an input method is on.

Date and time

Settings → Date & Time: Automatic date & time (from the internet), the time zone and the 24-hour clock. Seconds in the top bar clock are in Settings → Desktop & Dock → Top Bar.