input: Unable to set compose key

[proulxf012]

In Cinnamon the new keyboard layout control completely removed the compose key setting menu. There is a 'Configure' button but it is greyed out and unusable. Am I missing something? This is a non-starter for me. I have a laptop with a US keyboard but do have to type in french all the time. A compose key is a must have.
I spent some time looking thru the menus and found nothing.

François Proulx, Longueuil, Québec, Canada

[cz-papoo]

Hello everyone,

I haven't found a solution to this either, and I agree that the compose key is a must have.

Additionally, I want to bring attention to the options key of the org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard schema surrounding this feature as a whole. Please don't take this as me trying to hijack this issue—but it concerns the whole feature of keyboard layout options: compose key, caps lock behavior, restart x server, etc.

In the blog post “Monthly News – September 2025”, changes to keyboard handling got announced:

The next version of Cinnamon will feature improved support for keyboard layouts and input methods.
[…]
Under the hood, the Cinnamon keyboard handling relied on libgnomekbd and only worked in Xorg.

The reworked “Keyboard” dialog, or rather its “Layout” panel, is missing the old “Options…” button, which provided the capability to remap the behavior of certain keys. For example, I've been using this feature to do the following:

• Caps Lock behavior: additional Escape key
• Position of Compose key: Menu key
• Switching to another layout: Right Win key (i.e., Super R)

Up until this release, this worked and I was able to enable these settings by setting up the options key for org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard using gsettings, or just by using the GUI. For example:

gsettings set org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard options "['Compose key\tcompose:menu', 'caps\tcaps:escape', 'grp\tgrp:rwin_toggle']"

In the 22.3 BETA, these settings aren't recognized anymore—i.e., the keys CapsLock, Menu and Super R retain their default behavior. There is, however, a new category “Keyboard” available in the “Shortcuts” panel, where Super R can be set to switch to the next layout—this option specifically is also available in the new “Shortcuts“ section of the “Layouts” panel. Unfortunately, I haven't found a replacement for the other options.

Here is a screenshot of how it looks in Linux Mint 22.2 and prior:

Think of all the times you close some pop-up, a context menu, or return to "normal mode" in Vim—my pinky teleports to the CapsLock key for that. The same goes for the compose key, which I use every day—ideally, it remains configurable to be the Menu key.

If we didn't just miss a different way to configure this now, I'd like to kindly request restoring this feature somehow. Without it, I'd have a hard time moving to 22.3—and now I know that others would, too.

Thank you for your time, effort and consideration.

Kind regards,
Christoph

[cz-papoo]

Hello again,

clefebvre renaming the issue and assigning it the scope cinnamon steered me in the right direction.
I took a look at the Cinnamon repository and found this to be a known issue.

A comment by mtwebster has revealed to me that XKB options are now read from the xkb-options key of the org.cinnamon.desktop.input-sources schema.

As previously mentioned, prior to this release, I used to apply the settings like this:

gsettings set org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard options "['terminate\\tterminate:ctrl_alt_bksp', 'grp\\tgrp:rwin_toggle', 'caps\\tcaps:escape', 'Compose key\\tcompose:menu']"

With the exception of binding Super_R to switching the keyboard layout, this configuration can now be applied like follows:

gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.input-sources xkb-options "['terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp', 'caps:escape', 'compose:menu']"

This preserves Ctrl+Alt+Backspace for killing the X server, and adds CapsLock to act as another Escape key, and, relevant to the issue of the OP, sets Menu to be the compose key.

Rebinding Super_R to switch layouts is possible via the “Shortcuts” section of the reworked “Layouts” panel. To do this by script, however, I had to unbind/free the Super_R key from its duty of opening the start menu.

This can be done by script as well by modifying the menu spice's configuration, i.e., unbind Super_R and leave Super_L to open the menu, and restarting Cinnamon afterwards. The bindings for switching the keyboard layout is located in the key switch-input-source of the org.cinnamon.desktop.keybindings.wm schema.

# Super_R has to be freed from `overlay-key` in ~/.config/cinnamon/spices/menu@cinnamon.org/0.json (restart cinnamon)
gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.keybindings.wm switch-input-source "['Super_R']"

I'm happy to have found a working solution. However, it might be a big help for others if there was a GUI-driven solution to this, as is available with the previously mentioned “Keyboard layout options” dialog in Linux Mint 22.2 and prior.

Cheers,
Christoph

[mtwebster]

ref:
linuxmint/cinnamon#13284

[krixkrax1]

Ah I'm glad I've found this issue, and that I'm not the only one missing this feature.

Today, I thought I went crazy because I couldn't find this window ( using your screenshot @cz-papoo , cause I'm away from my Mint desk ) :

The configure button is also greyed out on my end on 22.3

I'd love having this Keyboard Layout Options window back, because I actively used it, and it was also good to have this kinda safety that we have options there to toggle, but reading the workarounds now with dconf is not a cool option imho, because how would a newcomer 'windows refugee' know for example, that ctrl+alt+backspace is bound to kill X, without learning about dconf shenanigans now? It's now under the hood, hidden from the eyes. Why it was removed in the first place though? It's not really a user-friendly approach to remove GUI elements like that.

[tuxfanmatze]

I would also really appreciate it if the Keyboard Layout Options windows were brought back, especially since Cimmanon is considered very beginner-friendly!
I had written a setup script for myself using gsettings set org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard options "['grp\tgrp:win_space_toggle', 'terminate\tterminate:ctrl_alt_bksp', 'caps\tcaps:none']" and was very surprised when turning off the Caps Lock key no longer worked.

If this isn't possible in the beta, a helpful note in the Keyboard > Layouts Tab and in the New Features section of the download area would be very helpful.

[cz-papoo]

Hey @krixkrax1 and @tuxfanmatze,

Have a look at the pull request @mtwebster has opened.

ref: linuxmint/cinnamon#13284

The good news: the UI for XKB options will return in some form, there is a screenshot in the first post of the PR.

I had written a setup script for myself using gsettings set org.gnome.libgnomekbd.keyboard options "['grp\tgrp:win_space_toggle', 'terminate\tterminate:ctrl_alt_bksp', 'caps\tcaps:none']" and was very surprised when turning off the Caps Lock key no longer worked.

@tuxfanmatze The September 2025 Linux Mint blog post implies that libgnomekbd is no longer supported.

Under the hood, the Cinnamon keyboard handling relied on libgnomekbd and only worked in Xorg.

Have a look at my previous post, you can now use gsettings to update org.cinnamon.desktop.input-sources xkb-options instead. However, you'll probably have to omit the grp\t, terminate\t and caps\t prefix from the values.

Cheers,
Christoph

[tuxfanmatze]

Thank you. I recognized that I can now use the org.cinnamon.desktop.input-sources xkb-options and it worked.
But still to be beginner friendly to have again the layout options will be very helpful.
Or at least a switch to disable Caps Lock.