Bug#357480: A bit of clarification
Sorry, it looks like I didn't directly answer Denis's question. To
clarify, I believe the tool that incorrectly assumes that "la" means
"latinamerican" would be the installer; it's the tool that asked me to
select the keyboard layout from a list; I picked latinamerican and the
installation configured the rest of the system with what it believes to be
a latinamerican keyboard; the layout is identified, according to the
installer, as "la". This assumption works out to be incorrect in the
particular case of X configuration, and this is where the problem lies.
However, it was the "la" file within xlibs that was changed to "latam" and
the Laos layout installed as "la". And since dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
assumes the user knows what he's doing, there's no list to choose from,
just a free capture field; the user, assuming he knows, because that's the
way it's been for as long as I can remember, inputs "la" for a
latinamerican keyboard, and trouble ensues once again.
As Daniel Stone pointed out, it might be a matter of updating other tools
to honor the same kb layout naming convention systemwide; after all, he's
correct indicating that "la" corresponds to the ISO country code for Laos.
Latin America isn't a country anyway :)
It would also be nice if dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg showed a selection
list with available layouts and descriptions, similar to the one seen at
system installation. When I first had the problem I knew it was a keyboard
layout problem, but without indication that "la" now meant "Laos" I had no
idea I was inputting a different layout than the one I wanted.
Thanks again, and I hope I'm not being too verbose!
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