Install virt-manager

Install an X11 desktop (which we want just so that we can run virt-manager)

> apt-get install xorg lxde

This will take a while - be patient!

First of all, you need to add the necessary keyboard layouts into the /etc/default/keyboard config file (see also: Keyboard in Debian Wiki).

You can change your keyboard settings by:

> dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
> service keyboard-setup restart

Here is an example with 5 layouts (US English, Ukrainian, Russian, German and French) and <Alt>+<Shift> as a layout changer key combination:

> nano /etc/default/keyboard

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ua,ru,de,fr"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle"

BACKSPACE="guess"

For the changes to take affect, you need to execute the following command:

> udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change

or to reboot the system.

After that, you can add a “Keyboard Layout Switcher” applet onto the LXPanel and finally test it.

> apt-get install virt-manager

This installs a lot of extra packages because it depends on a lot of graphics libraries.

> usermod -G libvirt -a user_name

Test you have access (logged in as user_name):

> virsh -c quemu:///system list

Start the graphical environment:

> service lightdm start

You should now be able to login to the graphical environment as the “user_name” user. You can get a shell window using Start > Accessories > LXTerminal.

You can also switch between text and graphical consoles using Ctrl-Alt-F1 and Ctrl-Alt-F7 respectively.

LXDE can be launched using GDM / KDM or LightDM, please refer to https://wiki.debian.org/LXDE for more on this.