I have x11-forwarding set up from an ubuntu 12.04 vm to my (windows) laptop. It works, but when I type in the forwarded applications, it is using the qwerty layout and I would like it to use colemak.

I would like a command-line solution since I don't have the GUI installed in the vm.

I have tried setxkbmap -v us -variant colemak, but I get "Error loading new keyboard description":

$ setxkbmap -v us -variant colemak

Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard layout

         Using command line, ignoring X server

Warning! Multiple definitions of layout variant

         Using command line, ignoring X server

Trying to build keymap using the following components:

keycodes:   xfree86+aliases(qwerty)

types:      complete

compat:     complete

symbols:    pc+us(colemak)

geometry:   pc(pc101)

Error loading new keyboard description

I also tried setxkbmap -v us -variant dvorak, which did seem to work.

What is wrong? Colemak comes with ubuntu, and I can see a section for it in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us, which is where the layout is defined, I assume.