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

[Anton Zinoviev]

On Sun, Feb 02, 2014 at 11:54:43AM +0100, Michael Schutte wrote:
> 
>   * 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.

Thanks for providing this list.  

>   * /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.

I am not sure I understand entirely the relations between various 
console-related packages.  There are too many of them - console-setup, 
console-data, console-common, kbd (not to mention the obsoleted 
console-tools and console-cyrillic) and each of these packages provides 
some console-related configuration in /etc.

What do you think about the following method for transition to a system 
without console-data and console-common:

1. Move the configuration scripts of kbd, console-common and 
console-data to one common place.  This can be either kbd or 
console-setup.

2. Remove any legacy Debconf configuration from these packages.  People 
who need Debconf to configure the console should use console-setup.

3. When all legacy scripts are in one place it will be much easier to 
simplify them.  Especially considering that there will be no Debconf, 
nor any need to configure something in postinst.

4. When installing new system, the default conffiles in /etc (such as 
/etc/kbd/config) will leave everything to console-setup.  Ofcourse, on 
upgrades these conffiles will be used the way they currently are.

5. After that we can remove console-common and we can transform 
console-data to just a collection of legacy fonts and keymaps.

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

OK

Anton Zinoviev