GDM does not honor system keyboard layout

[Michael Schnupp]

Binary package hint: gdm

(Yes, there are a few similar bugs, but they are all much more special.)

After upgrading to karmic, GDM breaks my keyboard configuration within X.
My layout is (as always) specified in /etc/default/console-setup, exported to HAL and understand correctly by X.
(Therefore any session started by startx, xdm, etc. works fine.)

However, GDM ignores that layout completely and forces(!) me to choose one of "its" layouts, which then is used for entering my password and for the whole GNOME session afterwards. - This forces me after each login to do a "reset to defaults" to get my configured layout back.

Please add an "system default" option, which just leaves the layout alone, like e.g. xdm does.
This should be no much work and should solve some of the other bugs, too.

(My current workaround is replacing GDM by XDM, but that's not very nice either, since GNOME depends at a few places on GDM, like when locking the screen.)

[KLEIN Stéphane (stephane-harobed)]

On my desktop, default keyboard layout is always USA. I always need to select France keyboard.

I suppose it is the same bug.

[papukaija (papukaija)]

Confirmed by KLEIN.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could be bug #460328, what XKBLAYOUT do you have in /etc/default/console-setup on your installation?

[Michael Schnupp (michas)]

My complete configuration is:
XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,de"
XKBVARIANT="dvorak,nodeadkeys"
XKBOPTIONS="lv3:ralt_switch,compose:caps,grp_led:caps,grp:shifts_toggle"

But this bug also holds for setups with only a single XKBLAYOUT.
If I didn't miss something important, the new gdm *always* overrides *any* configuration made in /etc/default/console-setup.

It is actually a REGRESSION. After updating to 9.10 my keyboard was broken - and the only working fix was switching to xdm, which simply does not touch any keyboard setting at all.

Is there any reason for *forcing* the user to choose a layout from the list?
Giving the user the *option* to choose one is surely a good thing, but IMHO the default should be leaving the layout alone, as xdm does.

(BTW, the comment #1 above is a different bug. This bug is about the configuration at /etc/default/console-setup being overridden, not about the last layout choosen.)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the multiple layout issue is known, it should not happen when only one layout is set, can you describe how to trigger the bug with one layout exactly?

[Michael Schnupp (michas)]

Alright, convinced. A single layout gives indeed a working layout.

I had a quick look at the code quite a while ago and was sure it sets the layout by itself.
But apparently it is smart enough to set the correct layout in the single-layout case.

It would be ok, set this as a duplicate of the multiple-layout bug.
But I would really prefer gdm to simply not touch the (already correctly configured) keymap at all, unless the user explicitly wants to set another one. (This approach would avoid the regression and the multi-layout bug.)
Trying to correctly detect the layout in /etc/default/console-setup and setting it again seems exactly the cause of this bug. But, ok, that is better discussed next door. :)

Thanks for handling this bug.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for the update, closing the bug as duplicate now

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

sorry having launchpad issues there...