[Adding -boot and -x to CC list. Sorry for the crossposting. Perhaps this
can move away from -devel.]
On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 08:37:04AM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
> (Joeyh, Kostas, Branden keyboard issues with X when using non-US
> keyboard...see -devel and bugs 238778 239827 242321 242605)
>
> > Confuse? This renders the system almost unusable until you fix it by
> > hand. When we have an installer which has become quite usable by non-
> > techies, such a bug is a giant leap backwards.
>
> Well, don't try convincing me...rather convince the X team to raise
> the priority of the keyboard question (that's a possibility)...
[...]
> Plans for synchronizing keyboard settings for X and console are
> post-sarge...so only workarounds are possible for sarge:
>
> -localization-config installed for all non-US installs
> -X keyboard config question priority raised
It wouldn't just need its priority raised; it needs to attempt to calculate
a reasonable default based on the value of the debian-installer/keymap
debconf template.
Theroetically, if that template has a defined answer and the mapping logic
is good enough, the priority of the XKB layout question could remain at
medium ("items which have a reasonable default").
> BTW, I'm not completely sure this is a backward leap : I don't
> remember whether a scratch woody install with X in frnech with a
> french keyboard ends up with a french X keyboard....
It doesn't. It defaults to "us" all the time.
> (the debconf priority is not a drastic change...but that would mean a
> new upload of the X packages which is certainly not trivial)
Eh, well, we've been having to upload it anyway for other reasons.
> A few translators have raised this problem for a while but we probably
> didn't make enough noise about it. Most are also culprit because using
> US keyboard : using local keyboard is not geeky enough...:-) (french
> ppl are very good at this)
This issue is on the TODO list for the debconf-overhaul branch in XSF
XFree86 SVN[1], so I'm going to be working on it soon.
I still don't know how challenging the mapping from d-i/keymap values to
XKB configuration is going to be.
If I feel myself getting bogged down, I might do this:
* If the answer to d-i/keymap is whatever the value for a typical US PC
keyboard is, leave the question priority at medium.
* Otherwise, kick the priority up to high.
It makes the install more interactive, which people don't like, but only
for people'd who likely be even more annoyed by a wrong keymap the first
time they start X.
Thoughts?
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=238778
--
G. Branden Robinson | You are not angry with people when
Debian GNU/Linux | you laugh at them. Humor teaches
branden@debian.org | them tolerance.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- W. Somerset Maugham
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