gdm greeter does not allow non-US characters (like euro character €) when typing password

[Franck]

In latest Artful (2017-09-08 daily), gdm does not allow to enter the euro character (€) when typing the password (be it with the real keyboard or with the visual on screen keyboard).

Steps to reproduce:
1. on the gdm login screen, try to type € in the password field
2. the input is ignored (not big dot is added)
3. if your password contains a € symbol (which is allowed, incliding during installation with ubiquity), you cannot login anymore...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think the default login screen uses the US keyboard layout only, so there would be no way to type '€'. This design presumably is to allow for the case that multiple users of the same PC might want different languages. So before you know which user it is, you need to assume the lowest common denominator (US keyboard).

The fix up to and including Gnome 3.24 is to configure your machine to always use your preferred language/layout system-wide:
  Settings > Language Support > Apply System-Wide

However... the design has completely changed as of 3 days ago and I no longer know how to fix it in gnome-control-center 3.25 ...
  https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/1:3.25.92.1-0ubuntu1

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Possible workaround:

1. Log in to a VT (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F4) and temporarily change your password to something simpler by running 'passwd'.

2. Change back to the graphics login screen: Alt+F1

3. Log in with your new simpler password.

4. Go to Settings > Language and Region > Input Sources > Manage Installed Languages

5. In the 'Language Support' dialog drag your preferred language to the top and then click:
  Apply System-Wide
  (Use the same language choices for startup and the login screen)

6. Now change your password again to something you prefer. And I hope the login screen will now accept it.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

@Daniel: If that workaround makes a difference, it sounds like the cause of the problem is that LANG was set to a non-UTF-8 value (such as C or POSIX). So it would be an encoding issue. Can you confirm that?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I can't confirm anything. I only speak English and use US keyboards.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

In any case I think that the claim in the bug summary and description is not correct. I just tested with a password including both € and ö and could log in using GDM just fine.

@Franck: I suspect that some other keyboard layout but the one you expect is enabled for the login screen. Can you please let us know what these two terminal commands output:

cat /etc/default/keyboard

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.input-sources sources

Also, to easier be able to guide you if needed, can you please let us know if you are using a one user system or if more than one user account have been created.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think the bug title is correct for what Franck and others are experiencing.

An accurate title is important to help others find the bug, even if you think it is caused by user/configuration error.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

@Daniel: Fair point. As a bug summary it may serve its purpose even if the statement is false.

[Xavier Guillot (valeryan-24)]

I just tried :

- on a laptop where Ubuntu has been updated from 17.04 to 17.10 yesterday (27th March)

- on the current 18.04 pre-release version on my home computer (updates made until 27th March)

Both were installed with French language and "French alternative" keyboard configuration.

On both I can well type Euro symbol € and it is well written in the gdm login field.

Same for # $ @ ù é.

Only letters with an accent needing a double click are not written correctly since 10th March updates on 18.04 (but work on 17.10) :

û and ü give u
ô and ö give o (see bug 1758563)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]