Step 1: su cp /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/dvorak/dvorak-programmer.map.gz . chmod 777 dvorak-programmer.map.gz mv dvorak-programmer.map.gz dvorak-wim.map.gz gzip -d dvorak-wim.map.gz Step 2: edit the file and change row 5 ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ! Row 5 ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- keycode 42 = Shift keycode 44 = z keycode 45 = x keycode 46 = c keycode 47 = v keycode 48 = j keycode 49 = b keycode 50 = m keycode 51 = w keycode 52 = q keycode 53 = apostrophe quotedbl keycode 54 = Shift And keycode 23 = k Save it! gzip dvorak-wim.map cp dvorak-wim.map /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/dvorak/dvorak-wim.map.gz chmod 644 /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/dvorak/dvorak-wim.map.gz To use it, type loadkeys dvorak-wim To make it permanent edit /etc/vconsole.conf change or add: KEYMAP=dvorak-wim