[intrepid,jaunty]: no "brazil - thinkpad" keyboard layout option anymore

[Andreas Hasenack]

Binary package hint: console-setup

I upgraded from Hardy to Intrepid and my "/" key stopped working. I have a Brazilian T61 Lenovo laptop.

A dpkg-reconfigure console-setup doesn't show me a "Brazilian - Thinkpad" option at the layout screen (screenshot attached). That's odd, because the intrepid installation does show it (second screenshot attached).

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I just did a reinstallation of Intrepid using the alternate CD. The keyboard layout is correct during Intrepid installation, but not anymore once the system is installed. So, I'm back to a non-working "/" key because the "Brazil - Thinkpad" layout is gone: it only exists during installation.

[Pedro Zorzenon Neto (pzn)]

I'm affected by this bug, since the slash-question-degre key does not work anymore. Using a Brazilian Lenovo R61i laptop.

Works: console-setup_1.25ubuntu3_all.deb
Does not work: console-setup_1.25ubuntu4_all.deb

Workaround to solve the bug:

cd /tmp
wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/c/console-setup/console-setup_1.25ubuntu3_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i console-setup_1.25ubuntu3_all.deb
sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup # now you can choose thinkpad layout

[Pedro Zorzenon Neto (pzn)]

after doing the procedure that I described some minutes ago: I had to REBOOT for the slash-question key to work again.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

This still happens with Jaunty, so it's now two distros in a row that lost this keyboard layout.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I used this as a workaround:

andreas@nsn2:~$ cat ~/.Xmodmap
keycode 105 = slash question degree

The problem is that it's a *bad* workaround, because if pressing "/" and another key rapidly after it, this next character is erased. For example, I get "/tc" instead of "/etc" if I type it rapidly (which is my normal typing rate).

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Pedro, unfortunately your workaround only works for the console, and not X.

BTW, the changelog listing changes between console-setup_1.25ubuntu3_all.deb and console-setup_1.25ubuntu4_all.deb is very bad as it omits this big change (deleting a keyboard layout):

console-setup (1.25ubuntu4) intrepid-proposed; urgency=low

  * Create /dev/tty[1-6] in our initramfs script before trying to operate on
    them (LP: #130444).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:07:15 +0000

[Pedro Zorzenon Neto (pzn)]

Hi Andreas, in my computer (intrepid 32bits), the workaround (comment #4/#5 of this bug) work both for console and X.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Hmm, I'll try again later then, maybe I missed something. I'm also running intrepid 32bits here, on a t61.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Pedro, it didn't work for me. Can you attach your xorg.conf please? Mine has no references to keyboards, I guess because of the new evdev system (or what's it called).

[Pedro Zorzenon Neto (pzn)]

Hi Andreas, here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[Pedro Zorzenon Neto (pzn)]

I can confirm this bug is also in jaunty. The workaround (comment #4/#5 of this bug) also works in jaunty.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I guess someone needs to be honest about this and mark this bug as WONTFIX. The last time the "/" key from the Brazilian T61 worked in Ubuntu was with Hardy. I'm on Jaunty now.

Developers, try living with a broken "/" key for a while and then you will understand the Brazilian T61 user's frustration with this bug. It's not a major bug, nor does it cause data loss or crashes. But it's as annoying as having food stuck between your teeth.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20425 suggests that you just need to select the ordinary Thinkpad model and a Brazilian layout. This seems to be mainly an upgrade handling bug rather than it being actually impossible to select that layout.

If you're finding that 'dpkg-reconfigure console-setup' doesn't affect X, then it may be because you have some other layout explicitly configured in xorg.conf. That shouldn't be necessary any more - X picks up the keyboard layout from /etc/default/console-setup automatically.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

By the way, the reason that the console-setup changelog doesn't mention this change is that the thing that really controls which layouts are offered is xkeyboard-config. console-setup just adjusts them for the console.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I installed this T61 with jaunty from scratch, the problem persists.

Here is my xorg.conf file:
andreas@nsn2:~$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Module"
 Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Default Device"
 Driver "nvidia"
 Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

andreas@nsn2:~$

The "/" key is behaving like ctrl, both in Gnome and in the console. My keyboard settings in gnome are Thinkpad for model and Brazil for layout (see attached screenshot).

Any other suggestions? (that ? was obtained via altgr + w)

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

And now the screenshot... ;)

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

This is what dpkg-reconfigure console-setup produces on hardy, where the "/" key works, for /etc/default/console-setup (only the keyboard stuff pasted below):
XKBMODEL="abnt2"
XKBLAYOUT="br"
XKBVARIANT="thinkpad"
XKBOPTIONS="lv3:ralt_switch"

Here are the same variables for jaunty:
XKBMODEL="thinkpad60"
XKBLAYOUT="br"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Karmic alpha 5 still has this bug. The "/" key behaves like right control.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

It's still happening with latest lucid image (tried the one from today).

This will be a regression from the previous LTS.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I stand corrected for karmic: on a fresh install I just did, even though the specific Thinkpad layout option it not there, the "/" key works perfectly out of the box.

I suppose that's also the case for Lucid, but I couldn't test it because after the install it wouldn't boot, so I only got to see it didn't have the option in the installer.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

does this ever occur in precise or later?

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested information? Thanks!

[Pedro Zorzenon Neto (pzn)]

Hi Rolf, I don't have the Lenovo R61 notebook anymore. It got broken. I can not test this keyboard layout anymore.
Thanks!

[dino99 (9d9)]

outdated flavor, report about a newer active version if needed