Re: Reformulation of criticisms about console-setup switch (was: Re: Review of console-setup wrt D-I [very long])
Console-setup changed a lot since the long mail of Frans Pop. I will
make an upload as soon as the current package migrates to testing. In
the following I am summarizing some of the changes.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 05:59:02PM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
>
> Size impact
> -----------
1. The model and the ttys questions are removed.
2. The translations of the origin and layout questions are compressed so
they take less space (143K) than if they were uncompressed in the
Debconf database (>794K).
3. The comments and the indentation are removed from the scripts.
4. The dependency on console-setup-fonts-udeb is removed so this package
will not be included in the image.
> Special handling of translations
> --------------------------------
>
> Translations of keyboard layout, model, variant are handled in
> /usr/share/c-s-mini/c-s.config. That brings a significant impact over
> handling them in debconf as it doesn't allow dropping translations to
> save memory as it's donne in low memory situations.
Now the translations are in /usr/share/console-setup-mini/kbdnames.gz.
If you remove this file or filter the information inside it (simple grep
can be used), console-setup-udeb will still work properly.
> Offering keymaps for all architectures
> --------------------------------------
>
> In expert mode, keymap models for all arches are proposed.
I removed this question from the udeb. The regular package should not
ask it if its installation comes after the udeb.
> Too many choices
> ----------------
>
> The c-s udeb proposes everything proposed by xkeyboard-config. That
> makes way too many possible combinations, therefore confusing choices
> and a size impact (because of i18n).
No changes here. I feel that reducing the number of supported layouts
is not right.
> Wording problems for some choices
> ---------------------------------
Do we want to fork the translations in xkeyboard-config?
> Useless questions
> -----------------
>
> Some questions were not formerly asked and seem generally useless
> *even in expert mode*.
>
> Questioned templates: altgr, compose, encoding, charset, console font,
> font size, virtual consoles
I removed the questions about the encoding and the virtual consoles.
For the rest it is not clear that they are useless in expert mode. For
example from a past discussion in this mailinglist I concluded that some
people are using AltGr and others - Compose. Moreover, those who use
Compose sometimes think that they are using AltGr (because they map
Compose on the AltGr key) and those who use AltGr sometimes think they
are using Compose.
> Preseeding broken
> -----------------
Is it really broken? I mean I didn't write the preseeding code in
console-setup and I've never tested it but I can't remember reports that
it is broken.
You can set the following templates:
console-setup/modelcode -> pc105
console-setup/layoutcode -> fr,gb
console-setup/variantcode -> nodeadkeys,dvorak
console-setup/optionscode -> grp:ctrl_shift_toggle,compose:rwin,lv3:ralt_switch
After this, Control+Shift combination will toggle between French keyboard
without dead keys and British Dvorak keyboard. The right Logo-key will
be Compose-key and the right Alt-key will be AltGr.
> That issue seems related to "not able to configure the keyboard twice".
I hope this problem is solved.
> Allow skipping keyboard configuration
> -------------------------------------
>
> There's a regression here.
I think this can be useful in only one case - when console-setup (and
console-data) do not support the keyboard model OR when console-setup is
unable to detect automatically the keyboard model.
In the new console-setup if you want to leave the console keyboard
unchanged you can use the following preseeding:
console-setup/modelcode -> unknown
> Skip configuration for Serial and UML installs
> -----------------------------------------------
>
> Another regression.
If necessary you can use the same preseeding
console-setup/modelcode -> unknown
But I think it is preferable to configure the keyboard of the host even
if its keyboard is not used during the installation.
> Compose key does not work in D-I
> --------------------------------
>
> "already reported": find bug number
If this is so, then the next logical question is: does Compose work with
console-data?
Anton Zinoviev
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