systemd-localed.service(8) is a system service that can be used to control the system locale and keyboard mapping from user programs. This page describes the D-Bus interface.

The service exposes the following interfaces on the bus:

.RS 4

node /org/freedesktop/locale1 {
  interface org.freedesktop.locale1 {
    methods:
      SetLocale(in  as locale,
                in  b interactive);
      SetVConsoleKeyboard(in  s keymap,
                          in  s keymap_toggle,
                          in  b convert,
                          in  b interactive);
      SetX11Keyboard(in  s layout,
                     in  s model,
                     in  s variant,
                     in  s options,
                     in  b convert,
                     in  b interactive);
    properties:
      readonly as Locale = [..., ...];
      readonly s X11Layout = ...;
      readonly s X11Model = ...;
      readonly s X11Variant = ...;
      readonly s X11Options = ...;
      readonly s VConsoleKeymap = ...;
      readonly s VConsoleKeymapToggle = ...;
  };
  interface org.freedesktop.DBus.Peer { ... };
  interface org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable { ... };
  interface org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties { ... };
};
    

.RE

Methods

If you set a new system locale all old system locale settings will be dropped and the new settings will be saved to disk. The locale will also be passed to the system manager, and subsequently started daemons will inherit the new system locale. Note that already running daemons will not learn about the new value.

The SetVConsoleKeyboard() method may be used to set the key mapping for the virtual console. Similarly, SetX11Keyboard() may be used to set the default key mapping of any X11 servers.

Note that SetVConsoleKeyboard() instantly applies the new key mapping to the console, while SetX11Keyboard() simply sets a default that may be used by later sessions.

The boolean argument convert may be set to optionally convert the console keyboard configuration to X11 keyboard mappings and vice versa. If true and SetVConsoleKeyboard() is used, the nearest X11 keyboard setting for the chosen console setting is set. If true and SetX11Keyboard() is used, the nearest console keyboard setting for the chosen X11 setting is set. Hence, it is usually sufficient to call only one of the two functions.

For graphical UIs that need to set the system keyboard mapping simply invoke SetX11Keyboard(), set convert=true and ignore SetVConsoleKeyboard().

Use the empty string for the keymap parameters you wish not to set.

The interactive boolean parameters can be used to control whether polkit[1] should interactively ask the user for authentication credentials if required.

Signals

Whenever the system locale or keymap is changed via the daemon, PropertyChanged signals are sent out to which clients can subscribe.

Properties

The system locale is shown in the Locale property. It is an array containing environment-variable-assignment-like strings. The following strings are known: LANG=, LC_CTYPE=, LC_NUMERIC=, LC_TIME=, LC_COLLATE=, LC_MONETARY=, LC_MESSAGES=, LC_PAPER=, LC_NAME=, LC_ADDRESS=, LC_TELEPHONE=, LC_MEASUREMENT=, LC_IDENTIFICATION=.

The X11Layout, X11Model, X11Variant, and X11Options properties show values configurable with SetX11Keyboard() described above (or SetVConsoleKeyboard() with convert=true). The VConsoleKeymap and VConsoleKeymapToggle properties show values configurable with SetVConsoleKeyboard() (or SetX11Keyboard() with convert=true).

Security

Changing the system locale or keymap using this interface is authenticated via polkit. The polkit action for SetLocale() is org.freedesktop.locale1.set-locale. The polkit action for SetX11Keyboard() and SetVConsoleKeyboard() is org.freedesktop.locale1.set-keyboard.

These D-Bus interfaces follow the usual interface versioning guidelines[2].

1.

polkit

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/polkit/docs/latest/

2.

the usual interface versioning guidelines

https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/versioning-dbus.html