KLayouts: The new feature cleans the system configuration of keyboard layouts #415

Basic information

TDE version: 14.1.x
Distribution: Debian 12, 11
Hardware: AMD A8-6500

Description

I just have no possibility of switching my keyboard layout after releasing 14.1.0 without configuration the disabled TDE layouts.

Steps to reproduce

Write down the keyboard configuration to /etc/default/keyboard
Restart system and you'll not see a possibility to switch your layouts

There are plenty of ways to switch keyboard layouts in R14.1.1.
Can you elaborate on what the problem is in more detail and provide steps to reproduce it?

Can you elaborate on what the problem is in more detail and provide steps to reproduce it?

On Debian 11

roman@home:~$ cat /etc/default/keyboard
# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us,ua"
XKBVARIANT=",unicode"
XKBOPTIONS="grp:lctrl_lshift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"

BACKSPACE="guess"

And images:

LayoutBefore.png — before updating to pure 14.1.1
LayoutAfterUpdateTDELayout.png — TDE Layouts disabled
LayoutAfterUpdateTDELayoutMode1.png — Mode 1
LayoutAfterUpdateMode1.png — System layouts is missing in the mode 1
LayoutAfterUpdateTDELayoutMode2.png — Mode 2
LayoutAfterUpdateMode2.png — System layouts is missing in the mode 2

LayoutAfterUpdateMode1.png

13 KiB

LayoutAfterUpdateMode2.png

13 KiB

LayoutAfterUpdateTDELayout.png

123 KiB

LayoutAfterUpdateTDELayoutMode1.png

107 KiB

LayoutAfterUpdateTDELayoutMode2.png

105 KiB

LayoutBefore.png

15 KiB

uhm... I have several keyboard layout configured on my system and so do many other users. Are you sure the problem is not on your end?

uhm... I have several keyboard layout configured on my system and so do many other users. Are you sure the problem is not on your end?

Sure, that is PURE 14.1.1 version completely without my patches and that is reproducible on all my systems with PURE 14.1.1.

@MicheleC
I think perhaps Roman missed the change of the layout switch that affected me as well.

@roman I now switch with Left_Alt+Left_Shift

Also when unplugging and plugging the USB keyboard (I use a kbd-switch), you have to reset the keyboard by executing /opt/trinity/bin/kxkb. I created a shortcut on the panel.

I don't remember when we discussed this, but we agreed that this is the correct way and we have to look forward to persist the layout switching.

@roman
As for the /etc/default/keyboard, I think it is just making things more complicated. AFAIR KDE never used those settings. So I have the standard from the installation. According the documentation it describes what physical keyboard you are using and has per se nothing to do with the layout switching.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="de"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"

My understanding is that it provides information on the physical layout, so that the virtual layout can be applied properly on top of it.

In relation to other issues in that context raised by @roman, I was looking at VNC problems with kbd layout and AFAIR there is a mess in the protocol regarding this.
I just mean, it is hard to pin-point a keyboard layout issue when using VNC. From my experience in the past it is better to enforce US locale (LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 vncviewer ...)

Seems like commenters here dont get the issue
I try to explain. Prior to 14.1.0 , with "Enable keyboards layout" unchecked, TDE didnt touch system keyboard configuration, so you could have used whatever was setup in /etc/default/keyboard or in gxkb config or whatever other means of configuring you used.
Now, with "Enable keyboards layout" unchecked, TDE wipes out any existing xkb configuration on TDE startup

@Harkonnen

Seems like commenters here dont get the issue
I try to explain. Prior to 14.1.0 , with "Enable keyboards layout" unchecked, TDE didnt touch system keyboard configuration, so you could have used whatever was setup in /etc/default/keyboard or in gxkb config or whatever other means of configuring you used.
Now, with "Enable keyboards layout" unchecked, TDE wipes out any existing xkb configuration on TDE startup

Thank you, that was a very clear description of the problem. I'll look into it.