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Bug#559878: debian-installer: keyboard e grub problems



reassign 559878 kbd-chooser 1.52
submitter 560027 Davide Prina <davide.prina@gmail.com>
thanks

On Tuesday 08 December 2009, Davide Prina wrote:
> > Well, keeping kernel configuration means you get a US keyboard layout,
> > so that means you're not actually testing what we want tested.
>
> but I don't understand why first it ask me if I want the Italian
> keyboard layout and than if I don't want it (probably the sequence of
> the question is wrong).
>
> And you forgotten that
>
> 10) Installare il sistema base (base system installation) -> Italia
> (keyboard layout) -> linux-image-2.6.686 -> mirato: solo i driver
> necessari a questo sistema (only driver needed by this system)

Ah! Now I finally understand the sequence.

So you initially choose "no not configure keyboard", which means that when 
console-setup gets installed in the target environment there is no default 
for it to use, and thus it asks the question. But choosing a keyboard 
layout at that stage *only* affects the target system, and not the 
installer itself.

And that means that you really do end up with different keyboard layouts:
- when you enter the password in user-setup, the kernels US layout is used;
- when you reboot into the installed system, the Italian layout is used.

Sorry for not getting this earlier, but selecting "do not configure 
keyboard" in kbd-chooser really is very unusual. Thanks for persisting in 
your explanations.

This is a corner case that is not covered currently, and which is also not 
that simple to solve.

First problem is that (AFAIK) console-setup does not have an option to keep 
the kernel keymap. One solution could be to set the keymap to "us" for 
console-setup if "do not configure keyboard" was selected. This is not a 
very nice solution as it means doing something other than the user 
selected.

Another option could be to not install console-setup at all, but that also 
seems like the wrong solution as it means you also don't get console fonts 
etc.
It seems to me that this is a design problem with console-setup: it ties 
console and keyboard configuration together too much (even after the 
recent split). The old tools were more flexible.

So the only solution at the moment seems to be to force the keymap to 
the "us" layout.


BTW, are you really sure that you *have* to choose "do not configure 
keyboard"? IMO you should just be able to select a keymap at that point. 
The "PS2/USB" identification is basically a remnant from the time there 
were no wireless keyboards, but wireless keyboards should behave just like 
PS2 keyboards. The actual physical connection is secondary.

This whole issue also demonstrates again the dangers of using "expert" mode 
when one doesn't really need it...

Cheers,
FJP

P.S. I have resubmitted your GRUB issues in a separate BR (#560027); the 
current one is no longer really usable for that.



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