@tess was the issue the dead keys altogether or the fact that the primary function of the apostrophes was dead keys? IIRC there's a variant where '`"~ do their regular stuff but AltGr (right alt) + key does the dead accent.
@indyradio Yes, this happens from time to time. So that's why I'm usually using the mfsbsd approach. The last time I used it was...yesterday, but I documented it: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/07/02/install_freebsd_providers_mfsbsd/