Similar to the console mode, X Window also requires some configuration, which involves setting up input and installing fonts for X Window. The required steps are discussed below.
First of all, you must install fonts with the Cyrillic characters in the appropriate positions. It should be noted that all modern distributions contain KOI8-R fonts, which are more or less usable, so if xlsfonts does not show them, then they are simply not installed or not included in the X Font Path.
If your system does not have KOI8-R fonts, then it's best to install the font pack sea the section called “Cyr-RFX”.
At the time of writing, the most ergonomic Cyrillic fonts for X Window are the fonts from the Cyr-RFX project by Dmitriy Bolhovityanov: http://www.inp.nsk.su/~bolkhov/files/fonts/cyr-rfx/. His fonts are available for all Cyrillic encodings.
These fonts are highly recommended as a base font set.
To install you should carefully read the file README, which is included in the font distribution.
To configure input, you should use the X-Window extension Xkb.
To configure Xkb, in the X configuration file (usualy XF86Config or XF86Config-4) you should give parameters XkbRules, XkbModel, XkbLayout and if you need something nonstandard, — XkbVariant and XkbOptions.
For example,
XkbRules "xfree86"
XkbModel "pc104"
XkbLayout "ru"
XkbVariant "winkeys"
XkbOptions "grp:shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
means that XKB should, according to the rules in the file {XKBROOT}/rules/xfree86, choose the keyboard configuration for keyboard of type "pc104"š (104 keys), Russian alphabet (English is included implicitly by default). If you have a Windows keyboard (which is true 99% of the time), then it is useful to specify XkbVariant as "winkeys", otherwise leave this option empty — "". At the end are additional options for your "keyboard layout" š — "grp:shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll", which describe the method of switching keyboard layouts: both "Shift" keysš , also, at the same time, the Scroll Lock LED will light up on the keyboard.