[Pkg-kbd-devel] Bug#734164: console-data: should conflict with console-setup

[Michael Schutte]

Hey,

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 07:42:34PM +0200, Anton Zinoviev wrote:
> > anyway, i don't know whether i'm talking about console-data at all at
> > this point, because things are such a mess. it's where i configured my
> > keymap, in any case. previously.
> > 
> > open /etc/init.d/kbd and look for HAVE_SETUPCON.
> 
> I didn't realise this.
> 
> /etc/init.d/kbd belongs to kbd but uses configuration provided by 
> console-data.  This is indeed such a mess...  By the way, if you 
> uninstall kbd and install console-tools, then console-setup won't 
> necessarily make the configuration of console-data ineffective. :)
> 
> Anyways, I am adding the maintainers of kbd and console-tools to the CC 
> list of this message.  I think the best thing to do (in terms of 
> maintainability) is to remove from kbd, console-tools and console-data 
> any Debconf related stuff and any /etc/init.d scripts.  If there is 
> something that the scripts of console-setup don't currently do, then bug 
> reports should be filled so that the required functionality will be 
> added in some future version of console-setup.

I'm generally on board with removing the kbd init script; it would be
conceptually much simpler (or indeed based on a concept in the first
place) to have the kbd package ship only the tools needed for
font/keymap setup etc., and leave the actual boot-time configuration to
console-setup for those users (clearly the majority) who want it.  Right
now I can think of two points to consider:

  * The kbd init script offers several things that console-setup
    doesn't, namely the option to configure different fonts on different
    consoles, the possibility to modify the keymap through a sed script,
    the configuration of the screensaver through setterm from
    util-linux, and the startup of other console-related utilities
    shipped with kbd (vcstime, kbdrate, setleds).  I don't know if these
    features would be considered a good fit for console-setup; I suspect
    that all of them are used very rarely.

  * /etc/init.d/kbd will have to remain on upgrade if /etc/kbd/config
    has local changes, otherwise some users who don't have console-setup
    installed might be unable to log in.  Things will continue to be
    confusing for this minority of users.

console-tools is gone in sid, so I assume that we don't have to worry
about it at all any more.

Cheers,
Michael