Bug report regarding XKB in debian 3.1r0a Sarge

[Alexander Larkin <avlarkin@imail.ru>]

Hi!

I'm Alexander from Moscow.

First, thanx a lot for new Debian version 3.1. It is much
simpler to set it up than 3.0 and it works out of the box
(as is) Ok (my doc about problems regarding setting up 3.0
is here
http://www.larkin.chuhloma.ru/athlon_history/athlonXP3100.html
). 

Please, tell me if I'm writing to correct address
(debian-cd@lists.debian.org). If I'll have more notices, I
would like to post it too.

I had some problems setting up Russian group for XWindows
(XFree 4.3). I solved the problem at last, but it doesn't
work for the first at all for me. Description:


<h2>XkbLayout=EN is broken! Use US instead.</h2>

Standart configuration like

<pre>
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "keyboard"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xfree86"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc104"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "ru"
        Option          "XkbOptions"    "grp:caps_toggle"
EndSection
</pre>

doesn't work anymore in debian 3.1r0a. It gives bug

<pre>
Error activating XKB configuration.
Probably internal X server problem.

X server version data:
The XFree86 Project, Inc
40300001
You are using XFree 4.3.0.
There are known problems with complex XKB configurations.
Try using simpler configuration or a newer version of the
XFree software.
If you report this situation as a bug, please include:
- The result of xprop -root | grep XKB
- The result of gconftool-2 -R
/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/xkb
</pre>

See additional information for one of EN configurations
that doesn't work (as suggusted in error message above):
<pre>
sasha@alarkin-lt:~$ xprop -root | grep XKB
_XKB_RULES_NAMES_BACKUP(STRING) = "xfree86", "pc104",
"en,ru", ",", "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
_XKB_RULES_NAMES(STRING) = "xfree86", "pc104", "us,ru",
",", "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
sasha@alarkin-lt:~$ gconftool-2 -R
/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/xkb
layouts = [en,ru]
model = pc104
overrideSettings = false
options = [grp grp:ctrl_shift_toggle]
update_handlers = []
sasha@alarkin-lt:~$
</pre>

I spent much time trying to understand why is it so (like
I have read developers file /etc/X11/xkb/README.enhancing
). I tried using <i>'Option          "XkbLayout"    
"en,ru"'</i> in different ways, but it doesn't help.

At last I thought that standart multy-language
configuration as described in /etc/X11/xkb/README.config
should work (like developers should try it before writing
README.config). README.config says:

<pre>
     Section "InputDevice"
     Identifier "Keyboard1"
     Driver "Keyboard"

     Option "XkbModel" "logicordless"
     Option "XkbLayout" "us,cz,de"
     Option "XKbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
     EndSection
</pre>

So I made the same configuration for russian and it works
well:

<pre>
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "logicordless"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us,ru"
        Option          "XKbOptions"   
"grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
EndSection
</pre>

After few experiments I got that the only buggy word in my
configuration is 'en' or better to say <i>'Option
"XkbLayout" "en,ru"'</i>. Also, 'en' is default for me, so
<i>'Option "XkbLayout" "ru"'</i> doesn't work too, because
it uses 'en' as default. E.g. see my /etc/environment file:

<pre>
LANGUAGE="en_GB:en_US:en_GB:en:ru"

LANG=ru_RU.KOI8-R
</pre>

My resulting configuration is (a part of file
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 ) and it works the best:

<pre>
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "keyboard"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xfree86"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc104"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us,ru"
        Option          "XKbOptions"   
"grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
EndSection
</pre>

See additional information:
<pre>
sasha@alarkin-lt:~/installation$ xprop -root | grep XKB
_XKB_RULES_NAMES_BACKUP(STRING) = "xfree86", "pc104",
"us,ru", ",", "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
_XKB_RULES_NAMES(STRING) = "xfree86", "pc104", "us,ru",
",", "grp:ctrl_shift_toggle"
sasha@alarkin-lt:~/installation$ gconftool-2 -R
/desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/xkb
layouts = [us,ru]
model = pc104
overrideSettings = false
options = [grp grp:ctrl_shift_toggle]
update_handlers = []
</pre>

Alexander.
avlarkin@iname.ru
alarkin@juniper.net