How to set a correct keyboard layout in i3 window manager

Recently I rediscovered for myself the i3 desktop environment, got tired of windows spread here and there, but I am using an Apple aluminum keyboard with french letters and numeric keypad (just used to it), and I just hated that the layout did not correspond to what is marked on the buttons out of the box. To try to find a solution I googled and tried many things. I eventually ended up using

localectl

to set the correct keyboard layout. So below are the steps which might help you out:

	# check the current layout settings
	localectl status
	# System Locale: LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
	# VC Keymap: ca-multix
	# X11 Layout: ca
	# X11 Model: apple
	# X11 Variant: multix
	# the command to set keyboard layout is
	# localectl set-x11-keymap LAYOUT [MODEL [VARIANT [OPTIONS]]]
	# so we need to figure out what to put
	# for LAYOUT MODEL and VARIANT for my keyboard
	# to list all available layouts
	localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts
	# from the output of the above command
	# I figured that LAYOUT=ca in my case
	# now there is a command to list available models
	# since I was interested in apple, I added a grep
	localectl list-x11-keymap-models | grep -i apple
	# apple
	# apple_laptop
	# applealu_ansi
	# applealu_iso
	# applealu_jis
	# from the above I figured that for me MODEL=apple
	# would be a good first guess.
	# Now we need to figure out the value for the VARIANT
	# for LAYOUT=ca
	localectl list-x11-keymap-variants ca
	# eng
	# fr-dvorak
	# fr-legacy
	# ike
	# multix
	# I tried using fr-dvorak and it was a disaster,
	# it completely messed up my keyboard,
	# using trial and error approach I realized that VARIANT=multix
	# for my Apple keyboard with numeric keypad.
	# So, finally I have all the ingredients
	# to set my layout as follows
	localectl set-x11-keymap ca apple multix
	# and use cmd+shift+e to exit i3 and then
	# login again and enjoy a nicely working keyboard in i3))
	## UPDATE:
	# I needed the left option/alt key to behave as altgr, it is just easier to type the curly and
	# square brackets on the apple keyboard, to achieve this you would need to add the
	# following argument to the localectl command 'lv3:alt_switch' as below:
	localectl set-x11-keymap ca \
	apple \
	multix
	# I used the following to swap left and right alts
	setxkbmap -option lv3:lalt_switch -option lv3:ralt_alt
	# to save the above setxkbmap options for switching alts, modify /etc/default/keyboard as follows:
	cat /etc/default/keyboard
	'''
	# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE
	# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.
	XKBMODEL="apple"
	XKBLAYOUT="ca"
	XKBVARIANT="multix"
	XKBOPTIONS="lv3:lalt_switch,lv3:ralt_alt"
	BACKSPACE="guess"
	'''
	# To persist the switch of the left-right alts in i3
	# I had to add the following to the ~/.config/i3/config
	exec --no-startup-id setxkbmap -option lv3:lalt_switch -option lv3:ralt_alt

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