I've had the same issue for years !

Hi, thank you for "resolving" the issue. Set English keyboard layout on top and Watch_Dogs and all buttons started to work.

Without this "fix":

With English layout on top:

same here
it's a major problem for every non QWERTY keyboard user
it's even more a problem when some devs are lazy enough to include non Qwerty keys in some games so remapping is impossible, so you are forced to switch layout to play (like atomic heart)

this really need to be fix

I've found a workaround. In steam, you can change the command to setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap <your language>

I've found a workaround. In steam, you can change the command to setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap <your language>

so if i understand i put setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap fr
in the command section of my game property on steam so it will be QWERTY instead of AZERTY ?

EDIT: yep it work

I've found a workaround. In steam, you can change the command to setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap <your language>

I try and give u a feedback.

why is this still an issue after all these years??? setxkbmap does not work.

Probably because the maitainers have a QWERTY keyboard and most games allow you to remap the keys anyways

I've found a workaround. In steam, you can change the command to setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap <your language>

I tried with Wuthering Waves on Steam and does not work

Any update ?? i'm also having a similar issue

Same here, would be great if proton could deal with this in background without us having to set US keyboard layout default. It's a real pain in the a** to change layout to french at each startup.

Im having the same issue but without changing the layout.

My layout is QWERTZ and the game recognizes QWERTZ but when i use special characters it uses US layout.
For - it detects /
and # becomes "
^ is not even recognized.

This is especially frustrating in Arma Refoger because it has no layout change option

I've found a workaround. In steam, you can change the command to setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap <your language>

Works like a charm on StarRupture to swtich from AZERTY to QWERTY with setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap fr in launch options.

On KDE Plasma 6.6.4 Wayland, and Proton Hotfix.

I've found a workaround. In steam, you can change the command to setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap <your language>

Didn't work for me.
When active it fixes ^ button
but then
still - becomes /
and the game wont actively translate it into - anymore
(somehow the game recognizes / but was still able to translate it into - when using in text fields)
in Arma Reforger

also this launch command weiredly made other programs to use english keyboard.

Using HOST_LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 %command% in NTE : Neverness to Everness fix the issue for me !

I have this issue as well, very annoying. I'm using Colemak, but have to reorder and put Qwerty on top and reorder again after the game.

First, thanks everyone for the solutions. I searched the internet for a long time before finding this issue.

tldr: Use XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=<lang> gamescope in the game’s launch arguments.

Another workaround is to use Gamescope, Valve’s compositor. For context, I’m using an AZERTY keyboard and trying to play Crimson Desert. I tried all the methods mentioned above, with the following results:

• Switching the default keyboard layout works, but it is annoying. You need to change it before and after playing, which is not very convenient in my opinion.
• Setting HOST_LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 does not work with this game.
• setxkbmap us && %command% && setxkbmap fr works great until you realize that it changes the keyboard layout for the whole desktop. Changing KDE’s keyboard layout behavior improves things, but does not fully fix them. Other windows may or may not switch back to AZERTY.

I wanted a single line that I could drop into the game’s launch options and then forget about it. Here it is:

XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=us gamescope -e -f -w 2560 -h 1440 -W 2560 -H 1440 -- %command%

Change the source and target resolution to match your screen. Without these options, the resolution defaults to 1280x720.

Gamescope is installed by default on SteamOS and CachyOS.

Having an interesting one with Atomic Heart, azerty is just impossible to use by defaults and trying to meddle XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=us gamescope ... make the game crash when trying to use keyboard.

setting XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT or XKB_DEFAULT_VARIANT have same results.

Any idea how I could fix it?

EDIT also tried HOST_LC_ALL + setxkbmap tricks and none of them works with that game :(
Note that Atomic Heart does not allow remapping to azerty because of internal game issues

EDIT2: found it! on my system (cachy os) XKB_DEFAULT_VARIANT is setup to azerty by systemctl

so final command must unset it: XKB_DEFAULT_VARIANT= XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=us gamescope ...

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I appear to have a related issue in dark souls 3 and skyrim with multiple keyboard layouts (US/Ukrainian/Russian). On gnome and Cinnamon, keyboard input works until the keyboard layout
is switched once while the game is running. It does not matter which
layout is switched from or to. On KDE Plasma, the issue may be present immediately after launch. Letter keys stop working correctly or produce invalid bindings. In Skyrim, rebinding movement keys makes the corresponding entries
disappear from the controls menu. Broken in proton 8.0-5, proton 10, proton 11, experimental
and hotfix. But in proton 7.0-6 and GE-proton11-1 keyboard works correctly. The same hardware keyboard produces correct press/release events in
evtest, wev and xkbcli.