gdm overrides keyboard layout in "no password" mode

Same here. I use "by(latin),by,ru" layouts, and "USA" one is added every new reboot.

The problem is bigger than this because I need asus-laptop and ability to switch between QUERTY and DVORAK. The first time I changed keyboard from USA-105 to ASUS-laptop, it worked. Until I re-booted. Now it doesn't work any more. The keyboard is stuck at whatever it was before, but system/preferences/keyboard still shows ASUS-laptop.

Since installation of 10.04 UNR Beta 1 (and now, subsequently, Beta 2), layout USA is always added to my German keyboard, and is always the selected default. As long as USA is installed, German refuses to be default, so I remove USA, but it keeps returning after reboots.

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

Hello,

The bug is really very easy to reproduce.Just go to
system->preferences->keyboard and choose layout. Choose a couple like: "USA
International (Alt Gr Dead Keys)" and "Bulgaria Traditional Phonetic". Then
log out and log back in again. A third keyboard "USA Alternative
International (former us_intl)" mysteriously appears. This stupid layout
that pops up is hardly "international". You can't even type German. And
what's worse, it screws up the other two layouts.

Best Regards,

Dale Gerdemann

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 9:46 PM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:

> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu
> better. Please answer these questions:
>
> * Is this reproducible?
> * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?
>
> This will help us to find and resolve the problem.
>
> --
> keyboard layout needs to be reset after each login
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/488048
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon
>
> This problem is similar to bugs reported by other people, but it occurs to
> me that it is specific to a particular layout, and so maybe should be
> reported as a new bug.
>
> The problem is that each time I log in, I have to go back to
> System->Preferences->Keyboard:Layout to delete "USA Alternative
> international (former us_intl)". No matter how many times I delete this
> layout, it always returns. And even if this layout is not selected, it has
> the peculiar effect of screwing up my other keyboard layouts. In particular,
> it screws up "USA International (AltGr dead keys)" so that I can't type most
> Extended Latin-type characters.
>
> I'm using 9.10 Gnome-based Ubuntu. The problem arose only after the last
> upgrade
>
> I also have selected a few layout options:
>
> Alt and meta are on alt keys
> Swap Ctrl and CapsLock
> Key(s) to change layout; menu
> Key to choose 3rd level: right alt
>
> The second keyboard that I am using is "Bulgarian Traditional Phonetic"
>
> I'm only using menu options and not playing around with xmodmap or anything
> similar.
>
> I'm using a Dell laptop.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Wed Nov 25 08:32:46 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> Package: gnome-settings-daemon 2.28.1-0ubuntu2
> ProcEnviron:
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/488048/+subscribe
>

I am having the same problem. I had two layouts (Latvian and Latvian with apostrophe). In Lucid it seems that keyboard layout indicator is always displayed in the system tray, so I tried deleting my Latvian layout to get rid of the keyboard switcher in the system tray. However, every time I reboot the system, 'Latvian' keyboard is added back.

I suspect that the extra keyboard layouts come from the system settings in /etc/default/console-setup. However, if you have a per-user configuration this should usually win over the system configuration.

Can you please copy&paste the output of

  gconftool -g /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/layouts
  grep ^X /etc/default/console-setup
  grep ^Layout ~/.dmrc

? Thanks!

$ gconftool -g /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/layouts
[us altgr-intl,bg phonetic]
$ grep ^X /etc/default/console-setup
XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT="alt-intl"
XKBOPTIONS="lv3:ralt_switch"
$ grep ^Layout ~/.dmrc
Layout=us alt-intl

The first of these gives a different result when I first log in and have not
yet gone to System->Preferences->Keyboard->Layouts to delete the unwanted
layout:

$ gconftool -g /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/layouts
[us altgr-intl,bg phonetic,us alt-intl]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 3:35 PM, Martin Pitt <email address hidden> wrote:

> I suspect that the extra keyboard layouts come from the system settings
> in /etc/default/console-setup. However, if you have a per-user
> configuration this should usually win over the system configuration.
>
> Can you please copy&paste the output of
>
> gconftool -g /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/kbd/layouts
> grep ^X /etc/default/console-setup
> grep ^Layout ~/.dmrc
>
> ? Thanks!
>
> --
> keyboard layout needs to be reset after each login
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/488048
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon
>
> This problem is similar to bugs reported by other people, but it occurs to
> me that it is specific to a particular layout, and so maybe should be
> reported as a new bug.
>
> The problem is that each time I log in, I have to go back to
> System->Preferences->Keyboard:Layout to delete "USA Alternative
> international (former us_intl)". No matter how many times I delete this
> layout, it always returns. And even if this layout is not selected, it has
> the peculiar effect of screwing up my other keyboard layouts. In particular,
> it screws up "USA International (AltGr dead keys)" so that I can't type most
> Extended Latin-type characters.
>
> I'm using 9.10 Gnome-based Ubuntu. The problem arose only after the last
> upgrade
>
> I also have selected a few layout options:
>
> Alt and meta are on alt keys
> Swap Ctrl and CapsLock
> Key(s) to change layout; menu
> Key to choose 3rd level: right alt
>
> The second keyboard that I am using is "Bulgarian Traditional Phonetic"
>
> I'm only using menu options and not playing around with xmodmap or anything
> similar.
>
> I'm using a Dell laptop.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Wed Nov 25 08:32:46 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> Package: gnome-settings-daemon 2.28.1-0ubuntu2
> ProcEnviron:
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/488048/+subscribe
>

Dale,

just to confirm, the "us alt-intl" one is desired and should be the default, right? It's just the "us altgr-intl" which is wrong?

Ooh, I see what's wrong. I think you _expect_ to have "us altgr-intl" and "bg phonetic". However, in gdm (the login manager) you selected "us alt-intl" instead of "us altgr-intl" (which can be seen in ~/.dmrc in the Layout= line). An explicit selection in gdm adds the new layout unless it was already configured.

So all you need to do is to fix the layout in the login manager once.

This is definitely a bug and should be reopened. Some points: 1) gdm also adds the new layout with an implicit selection and 2) it shouldn't add it at all and 3) if it does, it shouldn't set it as default.

1) I ran into this scenario:
- default layout selected on installation is alt-intl
- created new user with 'password not asked on login'
- new user chooses dvorak-intl as default (only) layout
The new user had never even seen the gdm keyboard selector, but the default always was alt-intl, which was unwanted.

2) There should be one place for setting the layout for the session. Now the situation is that you can select layouts in gdm and in the gnome-keyboard-properties, of which the first one can be hidden. (The only way I could find it was remove the 'password not asked on login', then logout, change the layout, login again, change the password settings again. Didn't know about the .dmrc file.)

It seemed like the changes in the gnome-keyboard-properties are simply ignored. If a user removes a layout, the user does that because he or she does not want to use the layout. Ubuntu should not go behind the back of the user and reenable a layout that was explicitly removed.

3) It might happen that the user does want to login using the system default and then use their own default for their session. E.g. 'latin' username/password to login, russian for the session or something like that.

Even if the layout used by gdm is already included in the gnome-keyboard-properties list but not as default, gdm will override this order and change the default. It should be possible to have two different defaults.

I read up a bit in these threads (where Martin Pitt also contributes a lot)

"always overrides keyboard layout variants"
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=572765
"Try harder to use the keyboard layout passed by gdm"
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=585290

I think the one thing that is overlooked, is that some users never see the gdm selector. To not require a password at login (or login automatically) is an option in the Lucid installation, so I think this is not an uncommon situation. The problem also occurs when there is no .dmrc file.

These users will not be able to change their default keyboard layout, at least that will be their experience. Therefore I think this bug should be reopened, but I'm quite new to launchpad so I'm not sure whether it is appropriate for me to do that.

Thank you for reopening (I didn't know what 'Triaged' meant), and also for your helpful comments.

The new bug description makes sense for your technical point of view, but so much for the uninitiated user. With this description I might have had a harder time finding this entry with your insightful replies that helped me fix the issue on my own computer. An end user point of view bug seems appropriate on the Ubuntu launchpad section.

Also, from the original description I think the technical bug (and subsequent solution) is the other way around: "changing keyboard layout with gnome-keyboard-properties does not propagate to gdm".

As in either both apps should change both settings always (which gdm already does), or they should never change each others settings (which gnome-keyboard-properties does). Originally I would opt for the latter, but reading the discussions, the former seems to be closer to the intended behaviour, so it is gnome-keyboard-properties that should be fixed IMHO, not gdm.

E.g. a scenario where the current proposed solution will lead to a strange situation:
- User changes to new layout in gdm and uses it pleasantly in gnome for months.
- User decides that a password is not required to log in.
- Suddenly his keyboard layout is changed.
- User files bug report: 'gdm does *not* override keyboard layout in "no password" mode' :)

With two layouts:

us intl
us altgr-intl

I could not get rid of us intl. Everytime I logged in, it reappeared in gnome (System -> Perferences -> Keyboard). I noticed that .dmrc listed us intl. I have fixed this problem by manually editing .dmrc to the desired layout (algr-intl) and then removing the us intl layout in gnome.

Another (related) inconvenience that is not a bug but not beautiful either is that for all using multiple USA layouts (i.e: qwerty/dvorak/deadkeys), all layouts are named similarly in the keyboard indicator. A bit more clever naming would help. Without that I wouldn't care about having many unused layouts.

I think this also has issues with the screensaver/screen lock - the keyboard seems to switch back to US layout for me after re-entering the password on the screen lock.

We use 3 layouts on one computer - Bel, Svk, USA. What I miss is the possibility to set default one in user preferences and have gnome-session set it upon start, regardless of what comes from gdm. The most apparent issue is that upon login, the keyboard-indicator does not match the actual layout used - shows the first from user preferences, but applied is the layout that arrived from gdm. And as reported in this bug, with passwordless login there is no way to set it.

Bug,

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

- Dale

Dale Gerdemann
Akademischer Rat at University of Tübingen, Dept. Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
Stuttgart Area, Germany

Confirm that you know Dale Gerdemann:
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(c) 2011 LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

Hello "bug" :-))

On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 5:42 AM, Dale Gerdemann
<email address hidden>wrote:

> Bug,
>
> I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
>
> - Dale
>
> Dale Gerdemann
> Akademischer Rat at University of Tübingen, Dept. Linguistics,
> Computational Linguistics
> Stuttgart Area, Germany
>
> Confirm that you know Dale Gerdemann:
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/e/-e3lzy8-gttfkb1o-2k/isd/4574021611/0AjqD8wn/?hs=false&tok=03CCds0X82nQY1
>
> --
> You are receiving Invitation to Connect emails. Click to unsubscribe:
>
> http://www.linkedin.com/e/-e3lzy8-gttfkb1o-2k/vLaJBaDbpO9GTL9Vm18e_54bSwR63BP6zTEoNoX/goo/488048%40bugs%2Elaunchpad%2Enet/20061/I1585185506_1/?hs=false&tok=3omWOBRvA2nQY1
>
> (c) 2011 LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct, Mountain View, CA
> 94043, USA.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (753077).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/488048
>
> Title:
> gdm overrides keyboard layout in "no password" mode
>
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon
>
> This problem is similar to bugs reported by other people, but it
> occurs to me that it is specific to a particular layout, and so maybe
> should be reported as a new bug.
>
> The problem is that each time I log in, I have to go back to
> System->Preferences->Keyboard:Layout to delete "USA Alternative
> international (former us_intl)". No matter how many times I delete
> this layout, it always returns. And even if this layout is not
> selected, it has the peculiar effect of screwing up my other keyboard
> layouts. In particular, it screws up "USA International (AltGr dead
> keys)" so that I can't type most Extended Latin-type characters.
>
> I'm using 9.10 Gnome-based Ubuntu. The problem arose only after the
> last upgrade
>
> I also have selected a few layout options:
>
> Alt and meta are on alt keys
> Swap Ctrl and CapsLock
> Key(s) to change layout; menu
> Key to choose 3rd level: right alt
>
> The second keyboard that I am using is "Bulgarian Traditional
> Phonetic"
>
> I'm only using menu options and not playing around with xmodmap or
> anything similar.
>
> I'm using a Dell laptop.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Wed Nov 25 08:32:46 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> Package: gnome-settings-daemon 2.28.1-0ubuntu2
> ProcEnviron:
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/488048/+subscriptions
>