Often during dist. upgrade, new releases and Gnome updates the language settings breaks password handling. This report relates to all Ubuntu versions (at minimum; dating back to version 5).
* Often the keyboard language and default language is reset to US English at login prompt - even if the default setting is Swedish, Russian, Dutch etc.
* Often the login system resets the keyboard language and default language to English US while in session - even if the default setting is Swedish, Russian, Dutch etc.
* The first seconds while logging in it is not possible to use Ubuntu in your native language unless you are English (especially on older hardware).
Use-case: I'm Swedish and use Swedish language as default. I use a Swedish keyboard. During updates the keyboard language is reset; then my login password will be rejected because I type with a different keyboard layout or with a different default language compared to settings made during installation.
* Changing session language will not help at login (often that setting wont even set language in session correctly).
Problem: At times it can be very hard to find the right keys if you use odd characters (and so on) and reasonably long passwords. I’ve learned the English US keyboard; however, novel users might not know what is causing the problem. The length it takes to access the computer in such case can be very long (and cost money).
If you use odd combinations like I do; Swedish/English computer (it actually looks different and have different keyboard keys) with Swedish and several others keyboard languages in Ubuntu as options + several different languages installed - then it can get really messy.
Severity: In some cases (i.e. 3 years ago when it happened first) it was faster to reinstall Ubuntu than figure out how to put in long passwords. The target group for Ubuntu would probably scrap the project all together and would not bother to learn another keyboard setting (if they at all found the problem).
Solution: Add keyboard indicator at login prompt and language indicator at login prompt. Most important inform responsible developers that this is a Security bug (of sort). Upgrades should also be tested in more languages and language settings should be honoured.
Also add keyboard and language indicator when screen saver activates if password is used. Always inform the user how to change keyboard language and default language at login or when screensaver is active (e.g. “use Alt + Alt”).
* This problem also relates to login with command prompt (which has no language indicators at all).
This might be a related bug for feisty: #109036