Bug#1012757: keyboard-configuration: generated /etc/default/keyboard file is invalid (xkb_variant/xkb_options requires a string value)

[Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>]

Package: keyboard-configuration
Version: 1.208
Severity: normal

I now get warnings in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file:

[    15.840] (**) Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
[    15.840] (**) Option "xkb_layout" "gb"
[    15.840] (WW) Option "xkb_variant" requires a string value
[    15.840] (WW) Option "xkb_options" requires a string value
[...]
[    15.904] (**) Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
[    15.904] (**) Option "xkb_layout" "gb"
[    15.904] (WW) Option "xkb_variant" requires a string value
[    15.904] (WW) Option "xkb_options" requires a string value
[...]
[    15.936] (**) Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
[    15.936] (**) Option "xkb_layout" "gb"
[    15.936] (WW) Option "xkb_variant" requires a string value
[    15.936] (WW) Option "xkb_options" requires a string value

The /etc/default/keyboard file contains in particular:

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="gb"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

So it appears that the empty strings are invalid.

However, this has been like that in the past, so I'm wondering why
I didn't get these warnings before (the X server hasn't been upgraded
recently).

Related to this issue:

  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=669912#c10

showing similar warnings, where in Comment 13, it is said that
an empty value is probably a problem.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bookworm/sid
  APT prefers unstable-debug
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.17.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=POSIX, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages keyboard-configuration depends on:
ii  debconf                 1.5.79
ii  liblocale-gettext-perl  1.07-4+b2

keyboard-configuration recommends no packages.

keyboard-configuration suggests no packages.

Versions of packages console-setup depends on:
ii  console-setup-linux  1.208
ii  debconf              1.5.79
ii  xkb-data             2.35.1-1

Versions of packages console-setup suggests:
ii  locales   2.33-7
ii  lsb-base  11.2

Versions of packages console-setup-linux depends on:
ii  init-system-helpers  1.63
ii  initscripts          3.03-1
ii  kbd                  2.3.0-3

Versions of packages console-setup-linux suggests:
ii  console-setup  1.208

Versions of packages keyboard-configuration is related to:
pn  console-common        <none>
pn  console-data          <none>
pn  console-tools         <none>
pn  gnome-control-center  <none>
ii  kbd                   2.3.0-3
ii  systemd               251.2-5

-- debconf information:
  debian-installer/console-setup-udeb/title:
* keyboard-configuration/layout:
* keyboard-configuration/switch: No temporary switch
  keyboard-configuration/unsupported_layout: true
* keyboard-configuration/store_defaults_in_debconf_db: true
* keyboard-configuration/optionscode:
* console-setup/charmap47: UTF-8
* keyboard-configuration/variantcode:
* console-setup/codeset47: # Latin1 and Latin5 - western Europe and Turkic languages
  console-setup/store_defaults_in_debconf_db: true
* keyboard-configuration/altgr: The default for the keyboard layout
  keyboard-configuration/unsupported_config_layout: true
  console-setup/framebuffer_only:
* keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap: gb
* keyboard-configuration/model: Generic 105-key PC
  keyboard-configuration/unsupported_config_options: true
* console-setup/fontface47: Fixed
* keyboard-configuration/compose: No compose key
* console-setup/fontsize-fb47: 8x16
* keyboard-configuration/toggle: No toggling
* keyboard-configuration/variant: English (UK)
* keyboard-configuration/layoutcode: gb
  console-setup/fontsize-text47: 8x16
* keyboard-configuration/modelcode: pc105
* keyboard-configuration/ctrl_alt_bksp: false
  console-setup/use_system_font:
  console-setup/fontsize: 8x16
* keyboard-configuration/other:
  keyboard-configuration/unsupported_options: true
  console-setup/codesetcode: Lat15
  console-setup/guess_font:

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)