Re: 07/07: services: console-keymap: Deprecate.

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

Hi Ludovic,

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> Mark H Weaver (2019-04-05 21:45 -0400) wrote:
>>
>>> Is there an alternative service to replace it?
>>
>> I wonder too!  I see there is a new ‘keyboard-layout’ field, but if I
>> understand (gnu system keyboard) correctly, it does not allow me to use
>> my own file in "loadkeys" format.
>
> As you found out, this is deprecated in favor of ‘keyboard-layout’,
> which has a couple of advantages: it’s uniform (the same config works
> for GRUB, Linux, and Xorg), and it’s installed from the initrd, so
> already effective when you type in your passphrase (see
> <https://issues.guix.info/issue/34929>).
>
> ‘keyboard-layout’ definitely works for what you describe, Mark (see the
> examples in the manual.)

Well, I described adding custom keybindings to the console keymap, for
which I cannot find any examples in the manual.  I see only examples of
using the pre-existing layouts, variants, and options that are built in
to XKB.

On the other hand, I just found that adding:

  (keyboard-layout (keyboard-layout "us" #:options '("ctrl:nocaps")))

has the effect of adding all of the keyboard bindings that I personally
want.

For the curious: the "custom" bindings I wanted are just those that Xorg
has by default, but that are missing from the default console keyboard
map.  Most notably, I had found that many (most?) Meta+Shift keyboard
combinations did not work properly in Emacs at the console, until I
added my "custom" bindings.  However, these missing bindings are
installed when my OS config has the above 'keyboard-layout' line.

So, thank you for implementing this new keyboard configuration system,
which is clearly a great improvement over what we had before, and which
now allows me to remove rather large section of my OS config that held
my keyboard map.

On the other hand, if this new system does not support custom keymaps,
it would be good to keep the old console-keymap-service around, even if
tucked in a back room, renamed, and clearly marked "only for hackers".
However, I don't feel strongly about it.  As you say, hackers can cook
up their own private service if they need to, I suppose.

     Regards,
       Mark