Basically, /usr/etc/X11/xdm/keytable boils down to: source /etc/vconsole.conf localectl set-keymap $KEYMAP $KEYMAP_TOGGLE but it should instead be: source /etc/vconsole.conf localectl set-keymap $KEYMAP $KEYMAP_TOGGLE localectl set-x11-keymap $XKBLAYOUT $XKBMODEL $XKBVARIANT $XKBOPTIONS (to me it's not 100% clear what the suggested --no-convert does, so I'm leaving it out even if it does seem to solve the issue at hand)