On Wed 17 Jul 2019 at 05:53:30 (+0200), Erik Josefsson wrote:
> On 17 July 2019 01:22:52 CEST, David Wright <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> >On Sat 11 May 2019 at 10:10:42 (+0200), Erik Josefsson wrote:
> >> […]
> >> That encourages me to ask another stupid question: I'd like to know
> >> why the "Keyboard model" has to be set before "Keyboard layout" when
> >> walking through the dpkg-reconfigure menues?
> >>
> >> If it was the other way around, the first choice, "Keyboard layout",
> >> could perhaps make an informed selection from the list of "Keyboard
> >> models" that could be relevant at all.
> >
> >I wasn't aware that dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration had
> >any decision-making abilities like that. I think it just turns
> >multiword descriptive lists into the pithy descriptions, so that
> >you don't have to know that a "Generic 105-key (Intl) PC" keyboard
> >becomes "pc105" and a Right Alt key for AltGr becomes
> >"lv3:ralt_switch".
> >
> >> In any case, what you care about as a user is "Keyboard layout", and
> >> in most cases when you have to make a series of choices, you start
> >> with your known knowns, not your known unknowns.
> >
> >My experience is that Keyboard Models is critical. Without getting
> >that correct, defining CapsLock as my Compose key is futile because
> >the driver doesn't seem to have a clue where the CapsLock is.
> >(That's for an "Acer laptop" PC.)
>
> Hi David, which "driver doesn't seem to have a clue"?
I have few ideas there. I would imagine that it's something in
/lib/modules/4.9.0-9-amd64/kernel/drivers/input, likely generated
from something in linux-source-4.9/drivers/input. I don't know
whether the kernel operates at that level, or whether it's just
handing scancodes over to, say, kbd_mode for it to sort out.
Sorry, I'm just dealing in symptoms rather than causes, and only
to the depth required to get my configuration definitions working.
At the moment, I've only installed buster onto one machine (of six).
I've noticed that one or two .xsession-1-$HOSTNAME files (hooked
into .xsession) have a couple of xmodmap commands which I want
to eliminate (and check that it doesn't interfere with anything).
Each Debian distribution brings a few necessary tweaks with it, and
I try to leverage the Debian Way, removing workarounds and obsolete
methods that accumulated in the past.
So, for example, I noticed that the buster laptop was sitting with
the backlight on all morning, only to discover:
$ cat /sys/module/kernel/parameters/consoleblank
600
$
and no trace of /etc/kbd/config to set it in. (Where is it set in
stretch?) So now I've put
\e[9;11]\S \n \l \d \t
into /etc/issue, and I might put kbdrate back into root's crontab
(which I tried a while back, helping Cindy log in)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/04/msg00953.html
while I figure out what's been moved where.
Cheers,
David.
