Emacs, Linux and international keyboard layouts

emacs, internationalization, keyboard, linux

Solution

You can set input method (kudos go to kindahero) by typing

M-x set-input-method RET cyrillic-yawerty RET

or

M-x set-input-method RET cyrillic-jcuken RET

To store it permanently, add

(setq default-input-method "cyrillic-yawerty")

to ~/.emacs config (and use C-\ to switch between keyboard layouts).

Problem

Is there an easy way to use Emacs key-bindings when you are using a not-English (Russian) keyboard layout? Whenever an international layout is on, all keystrokes are interpreted literally, M-ф instead of M-a. As a result I can't use commands. It would also be nice if Linux could interpret non-prefixed and shift-prefixed keys according according to an international layout, while keeping the rest English.

Original source