[Breezy] Using accented vocals in real user name during installation has weird consequences

[Ricardo Pérez López]

I'm using Breezy install CD from today (2005-09-02).

When the installer prompts for the real username, I type my name with accented
vocals: Ricardo Pérez López. (I'm Spanish (from Spain), and in that language
there are many real names with accented vocals, and other special characters
like 'ñ'.)

When I type the accented vocal, it shows an extra code char, and the installer
"almost" hangs, but it let me continue the installation. It's important for me
to say that the accented vocal never shows in the "real username" field.

After complete the installation, and log into the system, things seems well, but
I noticed three problems:

1) The "About me" application (on System -> Administration) doesn't shows my
real name.

2) The "Users and groups" applications (on System -> Administration, too)
displays an error message at startup, and then crashes.

3) Gnome display manager (GDM) doesn't shows my real name when I configure it to
show the user selector (changing the default "Human" theme for another theme
with user selector).

Now, I change my real name editing /etc/passwd by hand (or using vipw), deleting
the real name completely and typing it again correctly (with accented vocals).
And then, all the three above problems disappears.

I think there's a problem with the UTF-8 encoding in the installer. It seems
that the installer puts an strange character in the name instead of the accented
vocals.

Ask me if you need log files or similar.

Thanks.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 7427.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

(In reply to comment #1)
>
> This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 7427.

Colin, I think the problem isn't in passwd. When I say "real username", I want
to say "full name". Your full name is "Colin Watson", but your username is (say)
"cjwatson".

The problem appears when the user type an accented vocal in the full name, when
the installer ask him for it (for example, my fullname is "Ricardo Pérez López",
with accented vocals, and my username is "ricardo"). That is why I put
"debian-installer" in the bugreport's "Package" field.

I think bug #7427 talks about accented vocals in the "username", not in the "full
name". I think we're talking about two different problems.

I think, therefore, this bug must be reopened. Please, ask me if you don't see
it clear.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 7427.
>
> Colin, I think the problem isn't in passwd. When I say "real username", I want
> to say "full name". Your full name is "Colin Watson", but your username is (say)
> "cjwatson".
>
> The problem appears when the user type an accented vocal in the full name, when
> the installer ask him for it (for example, my fullname is "Ricardo Pérez López",
> with accented vocals, and my username is "ricardo"). That is why I put
> "debian-installer" in the bugreport's "Package" field.

The passwd package's config script is used by the installer to display these
questions. 'debian-installer' is generally just a catch-all until somebody like
me who knows the installer can assign the bug to the correct installer component.

> I think bug #7427 talks about accented vocals in the "username", not in the "full
> name". I think we're talking about two different problems.

Bug #7427 talks about both, and in my opinion it is essentially the same
fundamental issue; my investigations suggest that there may be a problem with
UTF-8 input in the installer's newt frontend, although the exact source of the
problem remains somewhat unclear and difficult to track down precisely.

With respect, I will mark this bug as a duplicate again. I do think that the
issue is essentially the same.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 7427.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> (In reply to comment #2)
> > (In reply to comment #1)
> > > This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 7427.
> >
> > Colin, I think the problem isn't in passwd. When I say "real username", I want
> > to say "full name". Your full name is "Colin Watson", but your username is (say)
> > "cjwatson".
> >
> > The problem appears when the user type an accented vocal in the full name, when
> > the installer ask him for it (for example, my fullname is "Ricardo Pérez López",
> > with accented vocals, and my username is "ricardo"). That is why I put
> > "debian-installer" in the bugreport's "Package" field.
>
> The passwd package's config script is used by the installer to display these
> questions. 'debian-installer' is generally just a catch-all until somebody like
> me who knows the installer can assign the bug to the correct installer component.
>
> > I think bug #7427 talks about accented vocals in the "username", not in the "full
> > name". I think we're talking about two different problems.
>
> Bug #7427 talks about both, and in my opinion it is essentially the same
> fundamental issue; my investigations suggest that there may be a problem with
> UTF-8 input in the installer's newt frontend, although the exact source of the
> problem remains somewhat unclear and difficult to track down precisely.
>
> With respect, I will mark this bug as a duplicate again. I do think that the
> issue is essentially the same.

Ok, no problem. Sorry about my null knowledge about the installation stuff (I
only want to help ;)).

Thanks,

Ricardo.