bug#37897: Bug: Resetting locale settings

[o.rojon@posteo.net]

Hello Ludo,

maybe I have been a bit unprecise in my wording, Im rather new to that 
level of configurability.

So I was talking about the keyboard layout all along. Not only was my 
locale set to "de_DE.utf8", but my keyboard configuration is set to 
"de-latin1-nodeadkeys". Interestingly, the keyboard layout is different 
in xorg and xfce than it is in the console (the one I reach via C-M-Fx, 
not the terminal emulator). In the console, I have the qwertz keyboard 
layout.

Also find the part of my current configuration file (sitting at 
/etc/config.scm) which specifies both locale and keyboard layout:
(operating-system
   (locale "de_DE.utf8")
   (timezone "Europe/Berlin")
   (keyboard-layout (keyboard-layout "de" "latin1-nodeadkeys"))
   (bootloader
     (bootloader-configuration
       (bootloader grub-bootloader)
       (target "/dev/sdb")
       (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)))

I was surprised by the behaviour described in my bug report because I 
saw that the value for "keyboard-layout", which is set very early in the 
operating-system declaration, is simply copied over in later parts of 
the configuration file.

If you need anything else, please specify. Again, Im rather new to these 
things, so sorry for technical inspecificity.

Greetings!

On 25.10.2019 22:44, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> o.rojon@posteo.net skribis:
> 
>> I believe that a locale-related bug has slipped in somewhere in the
>> last two-three weeks. During installation and in my configuration
>> file, I have specified de_DE specified as locale, which should
>> translate to a german keyboard layout. But since said two-three weeks,
>> I startup with what I believe is the US layout (qwerty) - and before
>> this occurred, I was once even unable to login because my keyboard
>> layout has been changed to something so obscure it didnt even seem to
>> know basic characters like the exclamation mark, while there was a
>> number of characters that could not be displayed (probably non-utf
>> characters I suppose).
> 
> Could you be more specific about the context in which you get an
> incorrect layout (console, Xorg, Wayland, GNOME, etc.)?
> 
> Note that locale settings and keyboard layout settings are entirely
> separate—choosing the “de_DE” locale gives you programs that speak
> German, but it does not give you a “qwertz” layout.  See:
> 
>   https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Keyboard-Layout.html
>   https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/html_node/Locales.html
> 
> HTH,
> Ludo’.