[Bug 1892014] Re: 18.04.14.7 regression: no alt_shift_toggle in XKBOPTIONS

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

Hi again,

On 2020-08-27 08:25, Alkis Georgopoulos wrote:
>> Possibly console-setup could be modified again, so the default
>> shortcut depends on XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP ("No toggling" for GNOME
>> and "Alt+Shift" for others). That way there wouldn't be a need to
>> involve ubiquity or other desktops.
> 
> When launching a console, XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP isn't guaranteed to be
> set. E.g. one can just switch to vt2 and login there, or one can run
> `sudo -i` which doesn't preserve the XDG_* environment variables.
> Losing the ability to type Greek because I used `sudo -i` wouldn't
> be appropriate.

The configuration typically does not happen when you launch a console;
with that approach /etc/default/keyboard would be already changed on
non-GNOME machines. So I don't think the absence of XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
in those situations matters.

>> Right. Super+Space is default on GNOME.
> 
> Up to now, /etc/default/keyboard allowed for defining a shortcut
> GLOBALLY, and the console, the display managers, and all the desktop
> environments respected that. Is supporting "a global shortcut" no
> longer a Debian/Ubuntu goal?

It's not unsupported. "dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" can be
run whenever you like.

What we know is that a global shortcut isn't compatible with the way
gnome-control-center currently works, since it may easily be overwritten
as soon as the user makes changes via Settings.

We also know that setting Alt+Shift prevents a user (at least on GNOME)
from using Alt+Shift+<some letter> shortcuts. So the previous default
came with that issue (which itself is a very old bug; see bug #36812).

And it's not obvious that just Alt+Shift is the best choice for a global
shortcut; many users would prefer Ctrl+Shift, CapsLock, or something
else.

Those three reasons make up the background for the changes made in
response to bug #1762952.

>> As regards the console, is there a use case which would be worth
>> to take into consideration where there is a need to switch to a
>> non-latin keyboard layout?
> 
> Normal PC usage is impossible without it. Some examples:
> 
> # Change directory to Desktop cd "Επιφάνεια εργασίας"
> 
> # Edit a file nano Αρχείο.txt
> 
> # Set a user's name usermod -c Άλκης alkisg

Those are tasks which I would accomplish with a terminal emulator such
as gnome-terminal, not a TTY console.

But I think the approach I propose (i.e. special case GNOME) may be a
bit complex code wise, and I'm disinclined to propose the actual code
changes. It didn't fall out well last time I tried to change the
console-setup package. :/

So we would need some involvement from Adam or someone else in the
~canonical-foundations team to evaluate whether the idea is sensible and
doable. Pinging some of them on IRC about this bug report might help
moving it forward.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1892014

Title:
  18.04.14.7 regression: no alt_shift_toggle in XKBOPTIONS

Status in console-setup package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Up to ubuntu-mate-18.04.1.iso, everything was fine. Starting with
  18.04.2, XKB_OPTIONS does not contain "alt_shift_toggle" anymore and
  we cannot switch the keyboard layout to e.g. Greek using Alt+Shift.

  Reading the changelog, I see:

  $ ~/source/ubiquity$ git show 786a5325ef
  +console-setup (1.178ubuntu6) cosmic; urgency=medium
  +
  +  * keyboard-configuration.{config,templates}: There is no good default for
  +    layout toggling, stop pretending there is.  Console users can set one
  +    with dpkg-reconfigure or editing /etc/defaults/keyboard (LP: #1762952)

  I'm guessing that ubiquity duplicates some code from console-setup,
  and LP: #1762952 caused this regression.

  To reproduce:
  1) Start ubuntu-mate-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso
  2) Select Ελληνικά (Greek) and start installing Ubuntu using the default options
  3) Right after the keyboard layout step, run:
  $ grep XKBOPTIONS /etc/default/keyboard 
  XKBOPTIONS="grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
  4) Verify that you can switch to Greek with Alt+Shift

  Starting from ubuntu-mate-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso (.1=OK, .2=BAD), we cannot switch to Greek using Alt+Shift anymore:
  $ grep XKBOPTIONS /etc/default/keyboard 
  XKBOPTIONS="grp_led:scroll"

  Does ubiquity really expect the users to run `dpkg-reconfigure
  console-setup`?

  Note that selecting Greek in the syslinux menu produces the correct
  XKBOPTIONS, yet ubiquity overwrites them later on with the wrong ones.

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