layout.md

🧩 XRDP Keyboard Layout Issue (US vs Italian)

Horizon → XRDP → Red Hat Linux

---

📌 Overview

When connecting from a Windows machine (US keyboard) using Omnissa Horizon Client to a Linux (Red Hat) environment via XRDP, the keyboard layout at the login screen may be incorrect (e.g., Italian instead of US).

This causes:

• ❌ Incorrect characters while typing
• ❌ Login failures (especially with symbols like @, ", :)

---

🖥️ Architecture

[ Windows (US Keyboard) ]
│
▼
[ Omnissa Horizon Client ]
│
▼
[ XRDP Login Screen ❗ ]
│
▼
[ Linux Session (Red Hat) ]

👉 The issue occurs at the XRDP login layer, before the Linux session starts.

---

🎯 Root Cause

XRDP uses its own keyboard layout configuration, independent of:

• Local OS keyboard (Windows)
• Linux session settings (setxkbmap, localectl)

By default, it may be set to:

Italian (0x00000410)

---

✅ Solution

1. Edit XRDP configuration

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

2. Add or fix the following lines:

xrdp.override_keyboard_type=0x04
xrdp.override_keyboard_subtype=0x01
xrdp.override_keylayout=0x00000409

---

🔍 Parameter Explanation

Parameter	Meaning
keyboard_type=0x04	Standard PC/AT keyboard
keyboard_subtype=0x01	Standard subtype
keylayout=0x00000409	US keyboard layout

---

🔁 Apply Changes

sudo systemctl restart xrdp

---

🧪 Verification

grep override /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

Expected output:

xrdp.override_keyboard_type=0x04
xrdp.override_keyboard_subtype=0x01
xrdp.override_keylayout=0x00000409

---

🧠 Key Takeaways

• 🔴 Problem is NOT Horizon
• 🔴 Problem is NOT Linux session
• 🟢 Problem is XRDP login screen
• 🟢 Fix must be applied in XRDP config

---

✅ Result

After applying the fix:

• ✔ XRDP login uses US keyboard layout
• ✔ Password input works correctly
• ✔ No more symbol mismatch

---

🏷️ Keywords

• XRDP keyboard layout fix
• Horizon Linux keyboard issue
• Italian vs US keyboard XRDP
• xrdp.override_keylayout

---

📎 Optional Improvements

If you also want consistency after login:

localectl set-keymap us
localectl set-x11-keymap us

---

👤 Author Note

This issue commonly appears in enterprise DaaS environments where:

• Base images are localized (e.g., Italian)
• XRDP defaults are not aligned with user keyboards

---