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

[Alkis Georgopoulos]

> How do you define "right" and "wrong" in this context?

After selecting "Greece/Greek" in an operating system installer, users
should be able to switch between English and Greek in the console, and
IF they run a GUI, in the display manager (to type the password), AND in
the desktop environment after login.

As far as I can remember, this was solved centrally in console-setup, up
to 18.04.2, when layout switching stopped working.

These 3 use cases (console, login screen, display environment) are the essential ones, the "system defaults".
Now additionally, there's another need: in multi-user and multi-cultural environments, per-user settings might be needed.

IF there's need for that, then sysadmins should select a display manager and a desktop environment that supports it. So "most" of the users will still be using the defaults, while "some" of the users will have to go to the desktop environment settings and choose a layout different to the default.
But having the desktop environment support different layouts per user, should in no way cancel the defaults; it should not prohibit the console users or the all-users-have-the-same-language environments from typing Greek, like it does now.


What I'm proposing:
If I run `dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration`, I'm presented with some questions/options.
Most installers like ubiquity or debian-installer ask the same questions/options.

So, /etc/default/keyboard ***SHOULD BE THE SAME IN BOTH CASES***.

I believe that's they key part, if we can agree on that we can the
propose solutions. After 18.04.2, ubiquity generates a different
/etc/default/keyboard than `dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration`,
and I think this is a bug in ubiquity.

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

Title:
  18.04.14.7 regression: no alt_shift_toggle in XKBOPTIONS

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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