Re: Colemak layout at boot time
On Sun 19 Sep 2021, at 06:14, Gareth Evans <donotspam@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> On Sun 19 Sep 2021, at 05:49, David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Sat 18 Sep 2021 at 21:56:34 (+0100), piorunz wrote:
> > > On 18/09/2021 20:00, David Wright wrote:
> > >
> > > > A lot of hits from googling grub colemak including
> > > > https://forums.debian.net//viewtopic.php?f=16&t=76833
> > > > which uses dvorak as an example.
> > >
> > > Thanks for your reply.
> > > Yes I seen this page.
> > >
> > > ckbcomp dvorak command outputs the layout details and everything.
> > >
> > > However:
> > > $ ckbcomp colemak
> > > /usr/bin/ckbcomp: Can not find file "symbols/colemak" in any known directory
> > >
> > > >
> > > > I don't recall the definition of "boot time password". Does this
> > > > denote something that Grub asks, or is it when dmcrypt is running
> > > > from the initrd?
> > >
> > > By that I meant GRUB editor and Debian's standard whole disk encryption
> > > in Debian. I don't have Colemak there. I need to enter password in
> > > Colemak. Yes, I think that's called dmcrypt.
> > >
> > > > Which is a reminder: is your keyboard definition
> > > > in /etc/default/keyboard getting incorporated into the initrd or not?
> > >
> > > I don't know that. I only have Colemak in KDE. Everything else,
> > > including virtual terminals (Ctrl+Alt+F keys) are Qwerty.
> >
> > How do you normally login, at a VC or in a Display Manager?
> >
> > Where did you run "sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" from?
> >
>
> > Have you seen this line:
> > update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.19.0-17-amd64
> > since you changed /etc/default/keyboard and ran
> > sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration?
>
> I replied just now before seeing this. I think I may have taken the
> "GRUB uses the US keyboard layout by default" in my link a bit too far!
>
>
> >
> > Checking your current initrd is a little tedious: you run
> > unmkinitramfs to unpack the initrd, and you zcat your
> > /etc/console-setup/cached_UTF-8_del.kmap.gz to, say, /tmp.
> > Then run, eg:
> >
> > $ diff -u …/main/etc/console-setup/cached_UTF-8_del.kmap
> > /tmp/cached_UTF-8_del.kmap
> > $
> >
> > where they are the unpacked and decompressed files respectively.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > David.
> >
> >
>
>
I have set up a VM with up-to-date Bullseye KDE (LUKS/LVM guided partitioning) to try to replicate this problem.
Adding the UK Colemak keyboard layout and promoting it to the top of the list in system settings > keyboard does not make it take effect in either the LUKS boot-time password or the graphical login - only after login to KDE.
Switching to UK layout for usage and then running in konsole
# dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
[choosing UK then Colemak then default for AltGr/special keys etc]
does not change the active keyboard layout, nor for the LUKS boot password or graphical login.
Out of interest, I thought I would try the instructions (section 5):
https://cryptsetup-team.pages.debian.net/cryptsetup/encrypted-boot.html
- but they fail at the third command:
# tar -C "$memdisk" -cf /boot/grub/memdisk.tar
tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
Try 'tar --help' or 'tar --usage' for more information
I lack much experience with ramdisks and all but the simplest of grub configuration, but I can't see either an obvious problem with the syntax suggested, or anything in 'tar --help' that helps.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Gareth
Reply to: