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Keyboard Language Switcher Ubuntu Systray

I just installed another language to Ubuntu 12.04, and was a bit surprised not to find any icon in the systray (taskbar, top bar, notification area), also there was no shortcut I could find to make it change language.

In case you are trying to change the keyboard layout/language with a keyboard shortcut or setup the systray icon that looks like a keyboard to switch the language in the notificationa rea, then you've come to the right place

First, to setup the keyboard shortcut to change language in Ubuntu 12.04:

Either open a Terminal and type:
# setxkbmap -option grp:alt_shift_toggle "en,th"

Another option is to edit /etc/default/keyboard
# sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard
and change it to something like this, where "alt_shift_toggle" could be any desired key combination to change the keyboard language in Ubuntu.

And second, how to get the keyboard icon in the top bar in Ubuntu, so you can change the keyboard language by clicking on an icon the systray/notification area:

Open Terminal and type:
# ibus-daemon -x -r -d

That's it, keyboard icon should now be in the notification area. Click on it, it should show you the languages you have setup.

If you don't see the icon, you need to do this:
# gconftool --type boolean -s /desktop/ibus/panel/show_icon_on_systray true
# gconftool --type boolean -s /desktop/ibus/panel/show true
# gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "[‘all']"
OR
Install Unsettings in Ubuntu with the following commands in terminal:
# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing
# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install unsettings
Open Unsettings and click on Panel tab. 1) Add "IBus" into Systray whitelist. Or, 2) replace everything with "all"

And maybe again:
# ibus-daemon -x -r -d

Enjoy!

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