Xubuntu installer keyboard selection error

[slumbergod]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

Xubuntu 10.10 installer on live cd.

I use English but my laptop was purchased in latin america so it has a Spanish keyboard.

The problem was that in the installer the first option was to select English but the option to select the keyboard configuration happens AFTER the partitioning phase. Because I choose to manually partition my drive on each clean install, choosing English gave me a standard US keyboard. But entering mount points requires a backslash and it is not the same key for a Spanish keyboard.

Obviously this only affects those in a rare set of circumstances but it is still a design bug nevertheless. The keyboard selection needs to be done at the start of the installation process along with the language selection.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.35-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Oct 21 12:51:50 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101008.1)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This isn't related to the bug you've reported but I'm curious to know if you have a swap partition mounted. You can check via 'free' in a terminal. It'd be great if you could paste the output of it in a comment. Thanks!

[AO (aofrl10n)]

This is also valid under Natty.

During the installation process of Natty, keyboard disposition selection comes after the partitioning step, possibly leaving the user with an unusable international keyboard.

This is even more of a problem for a regular user with no to little system's knowledge.
Even after the location as been chosen (Montréal for me) and the install language being French, the default keyboard disposition selected is France which is plain wrong. If a user goes for automated partitioning, doesn't pay attention to the wrong default keyboard disposition and then enters a password (blindly), this user will after installation be left with an usable system since he won't be able to log into the system as the password after reboot will be typed on a Canadian keyboard disposition, whenever the password has been set on a French keyboard disposition.

[Sam Hughes (6-sam)]

This is also a problem (as of Xubuntu 13.10) for people setting up an encrypted LVM, because they'll be asked to type their passphrase before the keyboard selection screen. After restarting, when asked for their passphrase, their preferred keyboard will be in effect (as is proper, because they could add another passphrase later) instead of the one that was in effect when the user tried to specify the passphrase in the installer.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]