[Bug 1875062] Re: [20.04] Keyboard layout not enabled immediately during installation when typing username/password

[Nicolas Mouart]

Hello Lukasz,

As mentioned earlier, I replicated using Virtualbox 6.1.26. Looking at the syslog and after further investigation,
the problem happens following open-vm-tools-desktop being installed. 

This triggers gdm-x-session to update the layout and, for some unclear reason, set the xkbmap to the gnome-session settings instead of the ones
defined by ubiquity under /etc/default/keyboard.
Since setxkbmap is a Xsession tool and settings are not kept per se, ubiquity should ensure that it enforces desired keyboard settings, after ubuntu-drivers has finished installing potentially required packages ( which may affect gdm-x-session). 

Workaround 2 : On the update software page, wait for a moment that the ubuntu-drivers list-oem finishes ( in the background, you can't see it unless looking at the syslog, the display blink very quickly at some point in my case), then go back to the keyboard page and continue again.
This time the keyboard settings are kept as desired during partitioning and user steps.

Workaround 3 : Modify the virtualbox machine settings when turned off

Under Virtualbox Machine's Settings > Display > Graphics Controller
Changed VMSVGA (default) to VBoxSVGA
As a result, open-vm-tools is not installed, gdm-x-session doesn't update the layout and keyboard settings do not change.

I hope this helps.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1875062

Title:
  [20.04] Keyboard layout not enabled immediately during installation
  when typing username/password

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in ubiquity source package in Focal:
  Triaged
Status in ubiquity source package in Hirsute:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  During a fresh install of Ubuntu 20.04, selecting Norwegian keyboard
  is provided and keys are responding correctly at that stage. But later
  when entering user information the keyboard setting is wrong.

  It looks like it have fallen back to English keyboard-layout.
  I failed to log in after my first install, so a new attempt I tried to write some special letters in the name field, and noticed that I got the wrong characters for the key.

  The install is done i VMware workstation 15.

  In the attached screendump, the characters (';[":{) after my name
  should have been (æøåÆØÅ) that is norwegian characters.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
  Package: ubiquity (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-26.30-generic 5.4.30
  Uname: Linux 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Sat Apr 25 19:27:41 2020
  InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed initrd=/casper/initrd quiet splash --- maybe-ubiquity
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-04-25 (0 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  Symptom: installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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