Bug#1107926: cloud.debian.org: console-setup required for virtual console keymap config to work
Package: cloud.debian.org
Severity: important
Tags: l10n
X-Debbugs-Cc: neitsab@archlinux.org
Dear Maintainer,
Trying to use the `keyboard: layout:` directive[0] in cloud-init config doesn't result in the virtual
console using it and the following error appears in the logs:
```
$ cloud-init status --long
status: error
boot_status_code: enabled-by-generator
last_update: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 12:13:30 +0000
detail:
('keyboard', ProcessExecutionError("Unexpected error while running command.\nCommand: ['systemctl', 'restart', 'console-setup']\nExit code: 5\nReason: -\nStdout: \nStderr: Failed to restart console-setup.service: Unit console-setup.service not found."))
$ cat /var/log/cloud-init.log | grep keyboard
2025-06-17 12:59:56,968 - modules.py[DEBUG]: Running module keyboard (<module 'cloudinit.config.cc_keyboard' from '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/config/cc_keyboard.py'>) with frequency once-per-instance
2025-06-17 12:59:56,968 - handlers.py[DEBUG]: start: modules-config/config-keyboard: running config-keyboard with frequency once-per-instance
2025-06-17 12:59:56,968 - util.py[DEBUG]: Writing to /var/lib/cloud/instances/iid-local01/sem/config_keyboard - wb: [644] 24 bytes
2025-06-17 12:59:56,968 - helpers.py[DEBUG]: Running config-keyboard using lock (<FileLock using file '/var/lib/cloud/instances/iid-local01/sem/config_keyboard'>)
2025-06-17 12:59:56,968 - cc_keyboard.py[DEBUG]: Setting keyboard layout to 'fr'
2025-06-17 12:59:57,021 - handlers.py[DEBUG]: finish: modules-config/config-keyboard: FAIL: running config-keyboard with frequency once-per-instance
2025-06-17 12:59:57,021 - util.py[WARNING]: Running module keyboard (<module 'cloudinit.config.cc_keyboard' from '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/config/cc_keyboard.py'>) failed
2025-06-17 12:59:57,021 - util.py[DEBUG]: Running module keyboard (<module 'cloudinit.config.cc_keyboard' from '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/config/cc_keyboard.py'>) failed
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/config/cc_keyboard.py", line 77, in handl
```
This is because `console-setup`[1] is missing in Debian cloud images.
Once added to the packages to be installed in cloud-init config, a minute or so after booting the virtual
console keymap and font change to the desired/correct values.
Working `user-data.yaml`:
```yaml
keyboard:
layout: fr
locale: fr_FR.UTF-8
packages:
- console-setup
bootcmd:
- cloud-init-per once setlocales sed -i '/fr_FR.UTF/s/^# //' /etc/locale.gen
```
With this the console keymap and font switch from qwerty to azerty after about a minute.
Please include console-setup in the default set of packages on cloud images to resolve this issue!
This is related/adjacent to Bug#1107636[2].
Cheers
[0]: https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/console-setup
[1]: https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/22.4.2/topics/modules.html#keyboard
[2]: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1107636
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