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Bug 648749 - gdm 3.x doesn't display the currently active keyboard layout and it doesn't offer an option to change it
gdm 3.x doesn't display the currently active keyboard layout and it doesn't o...
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: gdm
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.0.x
Other Linux
: High major
: ---
Assigned To: GDM maintainers
GDM maintainers
: 645188 652430 (view as bug list)
Depends on: 641531
Blocks: 622305
 
 
Reported: 2011-04-27 12:10 UTC by Tadej Janež
Modified: 2016-01-12 21:54 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.91/3.0


Attachments
What I did for rhel (66.88 KB, patch)
2011-09-15 14:18 UTC, Ray Strode [halfline]
needs-work Details | Review

Description Tadej Janež 2011-04-27 12:10:40 UTC
I have two keyboard layouts available when I'm logged in (I used the Region & Language component of the gnome-control-center to add an additional keyboard layout: slovene - sl) and I can choose between them.

However, the gdm login screen doesn't display the currently "active" keyboard layout and it doesn't offer the option to change it. This makes it very hard for people to enter the correct password (they have to guess what the active keyboard layout is) or even impossible if they used characters not present in the english layout.

Versions of the selected components:
control-center-3.0.0.1-3.fc15.x86_64
gnome-shell-3.0.0.2-2.fc15.x86_64
gdm-3.0.0-2.fc15.x86_64
Comment 1 Yuri Myasoedov 2011-07-04 05:23:01 UTC
*** Bug 652430 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Jeremy Nickurak 2011-07-05 16:39:28 UTC
*** Bug 645188 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Jeremy Nickurak 2011-07-05 16:43:04 UTC
Regression vs 2.3x releases. Pretty much impossible to log in to administer a machine when the the configured layout doesn't match the physical layout (ie, to fix the configuration issue).
Comment 4 Ray Strode [halfline] 2011-08-04 05:34:18 UTC
we'll get this when it lands in the shell ( bug 641531 )
Comment 5 Matteo Settenvini 2011-09-03 11:39:55 UTC
Should probably be a blocker bug for release, because this is a serious regression for multi-seat machines, especially for installation in public places or in the enterprise.
Comment 6 Alexandre Rostovtsev 2011-09-15 13:56:00 UTC
(In reply to comment #4)
> we'll get this when it lands in the shell ( bug 641531 )

First of all, gnome-shell ibus integration won't land until 3.4, see bug 641531#c47.

And second, no matter what happens with gnome-shell, this bug also needs to be fixed in gdm-simple-greeter. Displaying the keyboard layout should not be treated as some sort of an optional extra; it is a basic requirement for half of Europe.
Comment 7 Ray Strode [halfline] 2011-09-15 14:12:47 UTC
I don't disagree that it's an important issue to get fixed, and I agree we need a reasonable answer for fallback.

On the other hand, we're a bit stuck over the issue as a whole.  GDM can't implement it, itself for the default case, since the shell is what provides the greeter now.  We want a consistent story with what the user sees after they log in, anyway.

I do have some patches I worked on for RHEL to change the way layout switching works there. I was planning on landing those patches for our fallback story.

It would be hard to get these in, though, for 3.2.

I'll post them here. Give me a few.
Comment 8 Ray Strode [halfline] 2011-09-15 14:18:28 UTC
Created attachment 196638 [details] [review]
What I did for rhel

This is what I did for RHEL.  Something similiar to the second patch could be done for the fallback greeter.   Not sure if we can get it for 3.2 though.

We won't have a story for the default greeter before bug 641531
Comment 9 Jeremy Nickurak 2011-09-15 14:59:57 UTC
"We want a consistent story with what the user sees after they log
in, anyway."

Consistency's great, but if it's going to cost basic functionality for another 6 months on top of the 6 months it's already been missing, I'd argue that a short-term inconsistent solution, even just a workaround, is probably worth having. We do have a shell element already that's capable of switching layouts. If an admin at least has a way to say "here's the set of layouts to use at login-time" or "here's the set of layouts to use by default", even by editing a random text file.
Comment 10 Ray Strode [halfline] 2011-09-15 16:36:17 UTC
Jeremy, you're totally right and this completely slipped my mind.

The shell does currently have a way to switch layouts, and it does work at the login screen.  It doesn't have input method integration, but it should be sufficient for a great deal of cases.

It basically functionally equivalent to the patch mentioned in comment 8.

It should appear automatically if you have multiple layouts configured for the system. The way you do this configuration varies from distro to distro right now.

On fedora it's a comma separated list of layouts in the LAYOUT line of /etc/sysconfig/keyboard

You can also do it by editing xorg.conf or so.
Comment 11 Ray Strode [halfline] 2011-09-15 16:39:13 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> It basically functionally equivalent to the patch mentioned in comment 8.
(but for the default greeter i mean, whereas comment 8 is for the fallback greeter)

Also, i just gave this a try after posting comment 10 and and it does indeed work fine.

I noticed a bug where it shows a menu item it shouldn't, though. I'll file another bug report to track that.
Comment 12 Jeremy Nickurak 2011-09-15 16:40:30 UTC
Interesting. I'm unaware of any way to configure this under debian-based installations, without creating an xorg.conf, but that might be acceptable as a stopgap.
Comment 13 Ray Strode [halfline] 2011-09-15 16:45:30 UTC
I've filed bug 659164 to track the bogus menu item.

Jeremy, instead of creating an xorg.conf, you can also drop a file in xorg.conf.d like:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-layouts"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Optoin "XkbLayout "ru,us,es"
EndSection

or so
Comment 14 Jeremy Nickurak 2011-09-15 17:56:59 UTC
Awesome! With a workaround like that, putting this off a bit longer is much less stressful :) Thank you!
Comment 15 Alexandre Rostovtsev 2011-09-15 18:41:54 UTC
Yes, with this workaround, gdm-3.1.x works well enough for now.

(I didn't see it before due to a configuration problem on my end.)
Comment 16 Lionel Dricot 2011-10-20 11:15:07 UTC
If I understood correctly the workaround, the administrator of the machine has to manually add to the system all the layouts that could possibly be used.

Which means that if I want to use a given layout (say "Dvorak") on a given machine where I don't have administration rights (because it belongs to the company), it is not possible for me to have my layout at login time. Could someone confirm that point?
Comment 17 Matthias Clasen 2011-10-21 19:40:28 UTC
(In reply to comment #16)
> Which means that if I want to use a given layout (say "Dvorak") on a given
> machine where I don't have administration rights (because it belongs to the
> company), it is not possible for me to have my layout at login time. Could
> someone confirm that point?

Yes, that is correct.
Comment 18 Paul Menzel 2011-12-20 22:42:11 UTC
Can someone please post an update on this issue. Have the patches been merged to the repository already? What version will have the fix included?
Comment 19 André Klapper 2011-12-21 10:17:09 UTC
(In reply to comment #18)
> Can someone please post an update on this issue. Have the patches been merged
> to the repository already?

"Attachments" section says "needs-work" status for the patch, and this bug report is in NEW status and not in RESOLVED FIXED status. Hence no news.