Bug#926037: systemd: localectl console keymap configuration delayed

[Iiro Laiho]

On 31.3.2019 21.23, Michael Biebl wrote:
> Can you post the exact commands you used and what you did next.
> I'm not quite sure what you mean with "application of the new layout to
> the virtual consoles is delayed".
> Did you logout/login again in the mean time and still got the same layout?

Let's say we want to use the "fi" keyboard layout with variant "das". It 
is one of those "exotic" variants that are in the xkb's 
"base.extras.xml". I am not quite sure whether or not it matters. Then 
we run:

$ localectl set-x11-keymap fi das

The layout is not applied immediately. I am not sure when it is applied, 
but apparently it eventually will be. Sometimes running 
"dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" and telling it to keep the 
current /etc/default/keyboard settings helps, but for some reason my 
system does not show that option anymore. Anyway, no further steps 
should be necessary after running that localectl command. This issue is 
not limited to the CLI configuration: gnome-control-center also uses 
localed to choose the system-wide keyboard mapping.

Btw, "fi das" is a non-QWERTY layout so it is recommendable to do these 
tests on a machine that has a SSH server or something other that can be 
used to switch the layout back.

> TTBOMK, localectl just writes to /etc/default/keyboard and /etc/default
> /console-setup and leaves it up to console-setup to apply those changes,
> which is usually done during bootup.
> There is also a /lib/udev/rules.d/90-console-setup.rules, i.e is
> triggered via udev. So it might be possible, that console-setup applies
> the changes when the hardware configuration changes.

Yeah, just noticed that myself. On Debian localed apparently just edits 
the while when console-setup applies it.

Cheers,
Iiro