Hi, I'm currently on the same page (Ubuntu 20.04.1 fails to activate keyboard state after dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration, and - USABILITY! - keyboard-configuration does not even mention that such a manual state change trigger might be required! *)), thus replying here.
> sudo service keyboard-setup restart > > * What was the outcome of this action? > > Nothing at all : no change of layout Did you actually also do what Debian Wiki (currently!?) additionally lists?: | To apply new settings, restarting the keyboard-setup service should suffice, otherwise you can try to restart kernel input system via udev: | | udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change Case in point: sudo service keyboard-setup restart didn't work for me, whereas udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change as executed subsequently then did successfully update keyboard state in-place, within an xfce4 session. *) dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration logging: # dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration Your console font configuration will be updated the next time your system boots. If you want to update it now, run 'setupcon' from a virtual console. update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated) Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.136ubuntu6.2) ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.230-35 # (at least it does mention some setupcon aspects, but it fails to mention that keyboard layout state may fail to be updated immediately, as detailed by Debian Wiki) I am about to file an Ubuntu launchpad bug on this annoying usability omission. HTH, Andreas Mohr