surprising keyboard choice if not preseeded

[redmage123]

I installed ubuntu 8.10 via a network installation to a new HP laptop. I noticed that during setup,
when attempting to add a user name, the language wasn't English, it appeared to be Arabic or Georgian. Certainly
a non-latin language. The laptop boots into the console, but when I try to login, the keyboard simply emits
the diamond character rather than english language characters.

The preseed.cfg file I'm using is attached.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The fix for redmage123 is to use "d-i console-setup/layoutcode string us" rather than obsolete preseeding based on kbd-chooser. However, it would be nice if we had a more graceful default.

[redmage123 (bbrelin)]

Hi there,

In fact, this fix doesn't seem to work. I basically re-did the preseed.cfg
file using the intrepid preseed.cfg template.
the d-i console-setup/layoutcode string us was enabled, however, after the
new installation was complete, the keyboard
layout is still in Arabic.

I also don't seem to have any way to fix this on the laptop itself as I
literally have no way of typing command on the console
and am unable to login in via gdm.

Braun

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Colin Watson <email address hidden>wrote:

> The fix for redmage123 is to use "d-i console-setup/layoutcode string
> us" rather than obsolete preseeding based on kbd-chooser. However, it
> would be nice if we had a more graceful default.
>
> ** Changed in: console-setup (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: None => console-setup
>
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - Ubuntu network installer sets incorrect keyboard locale
> + surprising keyboard choice if not preseeded
>
> ** Changed in: console-setup (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
> Status: New => Triaged
>
> --
> surprising keyboard choice if not preseeded
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/328078
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in "console-setup" source package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> I installed ubuntu 8.10 via a network installation to a new HP laptop. I
> noticed that during setup,
> when attempting to add a user name, the language wasn't English, it
> appeared to be Arabic or Georgian. Certainly
> a non-latin language. The laptop boots into the console, but when I try to
> login, the keyboard simply emits
> the diamond character rather than english language characters.
>
> The preseed.cfg file I'm using is attached.
>

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

I advised Braun on IRC that he probably needed to preseed this on the kernel command line, i.e. "console-setup/layoutcode=us".

[Gilles (gvigner-gmail)]

I tried to add "console-setup/layoutcode=us" in the kernel command line, but it still doesn't work for me too.

Is there another solution to solve this problem of Arabic keyboard ?

Gilles

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Gilles: hop onto #ubuntu-installer on Freenode and we can debug it with you.

[Carl Karsten (carlfk)]

I see diamond character in the BusyBox console that you get if you hit Alt-F2 durring the alt installer.

append initrd=ubuntu/jaunty/initrd.gz root=/dev/rd/0 rw locale=en_US console-setup/layoutcode=en_US netcfg/wireless_wep= netcfg/get_hostname= DEBCONF_DEBUG=5 url=http://shaz/ubuntu/jaunty/preseed.cfg tasksel:tasksel/first="ubuntu-desktop"

[Roman Shtylman (shtylman)]

I could not reproduce this bug (using console-setup/layoutcode=us) . Is there more information you can provide about your exact setup and files used?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Gilles was a bit more accurate on IRC and said that he was actually using console-setup/layoutcode=en_US, not the correct console-setup/layoutcode=us. No wonder, then.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package console-setup - 1.28ubuntu7

---------------
console-setup (1.28ubuntu7) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Raise priority to critical for questions preseeded with a nonexistent
    code (LP: #328078).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:45:13 +0000